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Just a few days after Metro's board gave preliminary approval to the restructuring of the 30s bus lines, the Examiner has a story reporting that Metro General Manager John Catoe is now shifting his attention toward improving Metrobus service after spending his first year focusing mainly on Metrorail.
Among Catoe's priorities for Metrobus: hiring more bus supervisors and giving them dispatcher authority that would allow them to make alterations to bus schedules when traffic conditions call for such action. Having that sort of power could help supervisors prevent what we've nicknamed "bunchabuses,", the phenomenon of having two or more buses bunched together, traveling down the same route at the same time. For a classic example, see Flickr user cstein96's photo above, featuring a whopping six S buses approaching 16th and U at the same time, from back in February.
Missing from the story: why don't bus supervisors have this power already? We know you have plenty of bus complaints, so add your gripes/suggestions for Metro in the comments.
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1/2 mile minimum between each bus stop.
What's hilarious is that this only seems to be a DC phenomenon. There have been countless times that I've seen a few buses approach a single bus stop simultaneously.
No lie: I used to be a bus driver. Unbunching busses can be really, really awful business. Generally, you take the bus that's behind schedule and dump its passengers to the bus behind it and have it 'deadhead' to another point to get it on schedule. Fine...it works if only one or two buses are off schedule (and traffic cooperates). More often than not, though, the problem resurfaces quickly because there aren't enough spots for buses to hold to help rebuild the gap between buses.
Plus, it's just damn fun to show your superior driving skills by continuously catching up to the bus in front of you. Suckas.
I actually think that every two blocks is about right for buses (at least in DC, where the blocks are relatively long). This isn't just because people aren't willing to walk as far to access a bus as they are to access metro, but also because bus stops don't have the same presence as metro stations, so in order to make the system legible to users, bus stops should be predictable (as in, every 2-3 blocks).
There are other ways to speed up bus service and reduce bunching (dedicated lanes and signal priority). Of course, as a regular user of the 16th Street line, I don't mind the bunching all that much -- it generally means I can get a seat on the 2nd or 3rd bus. And really, there are so many buses on that line that even with routine bunching I rarely wait longer than 5 minutes for a bus. (However, bunching on the 42 after rush hour is a SERIOUS problem, since it can result in a 20 minute wait)
bunching during rush can have it's advantages, but what about when i'm standing there waiting for a G8 on a saturday, 10 minutes ahead of when it should be showing up (just to be careful) and two buses show up together 15 minutes after the scheduled time? and both buses have 2 passengers on them.
i don't think you have to be a supervisor to have enough common sense to realize that you're not serving the public, as a bus driver, in that situation. and that steams the hell out of me.
common sense, yo.
I used to think that the problem was mostly due to stops being so close together - but I think it's only part of the problem.
I take the S bus after work from the beginning of the route. It can be very likely that I will see two S busses that end at 16th and Colorado leave the stop at the exact same time. How can BOTH be on schedule? Then, the busses play leapfrog with eachother up 16th street.
Also, I've sat on a bus, waiting for the route to begin. Even after the bus driver told me it was the next S route bus leaving, I have seen anywhere from one to three others leave before we take off.
The 14th and 16th street lines are the worst. Stops should be every 3 blocks for one, not every block. There's no reason I cant walk to my house from the U street stop instead of the T street stop
That's a good point, IMGoph, that maybe this picture (dramatic as it is) obscures: bunching is a much more serious problem for lines where a bus is scheduled to come by every 15 minutes but then because of bunching you end up waiting 30 minutes before 2 buses show up.
By the way, Yonas, buses bunch in every city where they run on the street in mixed traffic. It might be more noticable here than in, say, Pittsburgh, but that's because we have more traffic on our streets, plus we have extremely robust bus service in some parts of the city (more buses to get caught in traffic).
By the way, here's a fun fact -- DC's highest ridership bus line (the 30s line) has about 20,000 riders a day. That's the same as the ridership for Birmingham, Alabama's entire SYSTEM.
funny Esmerelda would mention Pittsburgh, because I definitely noticed lots of bus bunching there... especially along the fifth and forbes corridor where a substantial number of lines run... I always thought that fewer stops... or at least fewer places where EVERY bus on the line would stop could be one way to alleviate the problem...
Maybe they need to hire this kid.
Bring back NextBus!
I'm glad they're fixing the 30 buses, and I hope they create some express buses on the Benning Road/ H Street corridor as well. (X2) It can take up to an hour to get from 14th and H NE to McPhearson Square. A big problem is the frequent stops (every block or two) and the many people who insist on using cash.
When are the paper transfers going away, anyway? This will definitively help expedite boarding times.
I live on Rhode Island, and while the buses don't bunch there as bad, then do royally screw up traffic.
There is a stop every single block. It is really uncalled for.
Definitely, making bus stops further apart would VASTLY improve service. I'm not sure it's true that people aren't willing to walk as far to a bus as to a metro stop. It's true that certain people will make a big stink about having the stop right in front of their house removed, but does that mean that if it is removed, they'll actually stop using the bus? Probably not.
Even if it is true that people aren't willing to walk as far, one of the reasons is surely that buses are a lower-quality form of transport than the metro. And one reason they are lower-quality is their sloooooowness. So having bus stops on every corner creates a self-perpetuating cycle of crappiness.
Bunch among buses is an emergent behavior serving many benefits. The principal benefits are safety in numbers and increased foraging efficiency. Defense against predators is particularly important in closed habitats such as cities where predation is often by ambush and early warning provided by multiple eyes is important. Bunching also has costs, particularly to socially subordinate buses, which are bullied by more dominant buses; buses may also sacrifice feeding efficiency in a bunch.
So the real solution is kill all the wolves.
Yeah, but the buses serve a lot of people who are incapable of walking very far. You don't have to ride very long to get a sense of that.
Why are there daily riders though who don't have Smartrip cards? This seems fairly common too. Is it the $5 initial cost? Cash is a real pain and SLOW.
1. Charge more for people not using SmarTrip cards because people using cash clog up the line to get on the bus.
2. Express buses
3. More buses for when the rail has a meltdown
4. Smaller buses more frequently so people will take the bus instead of driving -> less traffic -> more on time buses
5. Bus drivers could do it rail style. "There's another bus coming right behind this one." Then shut the door in their face and drive away. The next bus ends up coming in 20 minutes.
I'm opposed to the changes to the 30 series. It would significantly decrease the number of buses that go from downtown to Wisconsin Ave. (plus the nostalgic in me is sad to see the historic crosstown streetcar route chopped up like that).
We need dedicated buslanes on the major arteries. At the very least, we need one on K st. DDOT has an indefinite hold on the K St. busway plan, which is inexcuseable.
I too hate bunching, but I don't think that the frequency of stops is the cause. As IMGoph pointed out, buses can't even stay on schedule on a sunny Saturday. I blame driver management.
Also, I second the call for Nextbus. I was dismayed that they're now saying that they don't plan on bringing Nextbus back until it is 95% reliable. What they told us when they shut it down was that there were technical problems and that they expected to fix them within 18 months. Now it sounds more like Metro was looking for a place to cut costs and figured that it could hide behind the complaint the a system that bats .800 is not worth the money (so it's gone back to the system that can't even bat the Mendoza Line). I would absolutely choose a system that will let me down once every five times over a system that makes no promises at all.
A well functioning next bus system would significantly improve the metrobus experience.
Living on the Pentagon-end of the Columbia Pike line this gets to be a serious problem in the morning. I can get to the bus stop a couple minutes early and wait 10 minutes or more for a bus only to have three buses arrive simultaneously.
Trouble is, they all go practically the same place, so the first bus catches everybody at the stops and the buses behind that just pile right on up while they wait for the crowd to board that front bus. Before you know it the front bus is running late and holding up the rest of the buses.
So I suppose the problem here is how long it takes to load passengers... Perhaps if there was a way to let people board more than one door?
I do think that you could eliminate some bus stops so that busses stop every-other-block rather than every block as they do now. However if they were any less frequent than that, you would undermine the whole bus system which unlike our Metrorail system serves the neighborhoods and not the commuters (people will not walk as far to a bus as they will to a metro). I live on Rhode Island Ave NE and it is well served by many bus routes, but there is one block where there are two bus stops within the same block! (between 13th and 14th NE)
As an aside, I'm always amazed at the people who are not obviously infirm who will get on the bus at the last stop, which is right across the street from the Metro station entrance, where the bus terminates...
Get away from the change issue by doing what is common in Europe - establish ticket vending machines at major stops and only accept tickets on buses, not cash. This would also encourage most regular riders to get smart cards.
Much better and more frequent service in needed on upper Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues, one of the areas of the city least well served by Metro. Too many of these buses get caught in Georgetown traffic. Have some of them start and end their routes above Georgetown.
Second, third and fourth the motion to lessen the number of stops, which along the 14th and 16th street lines can venture between aggravating and infuriating. It's the biggest reason why I rarely take the bus--for trips of 10 blocks or less, it's frequently quicker to walk. For trips longer than that, the Metro or a cab will suffice. Two blocks should be the absolute minimum distance, but three blocks would be much better. No one would have to walk more than an additional 1 1/2 blocks to arrive at a stop. People may complain about it at first, but they'll get over it--particularly when they arrive at their destination 2-3x as quickly.
"the whole bus system which unlike our Metrorail system serves the neighborhoods"
Fewer stops wouldn't undermine the neighborhoods, it's just cutting back on the number of stops within a particular neighborhood. Feet are for intra-neighborhood travel, buses are for inter-neighborhood travel and trains are for intra-regional travel.
It's pointless to sit and talk about cutting back stops generally because everyone is thinking about different lines. In some places it might make sense, in other places it wouldn't. You can't argue for a specific general solution for bunching because each line is completely different. Personally, I know the lines I ride either would not benefit from fewer stops, or it's just a non-starter (I just don't see them cutting stops on K St.).
I like lots of the suggestions here, and would combine a couple.
1) Nextbus: yes. Let's bring it back, if for no other reason than to have hollow hope at the bus stop instead of that profound feeling of dislocation I suffer now.
2) Express buses that stop at non-express stops for wheelchair, cane, and crutches passengers.
3) Establish the H1 line as a permanent bus line, or at least expand service.
4) Better, more universal maps at stops. All bus stops should have schedules if we aren't going to get nextbus. Stops with shelters should have the full-system map as well as a bus map with a few alternate routes highlighted.
5)Two tiered pricing: sell smartcards at some sort of local business and the metros, and charge more for cash.
6) A direct report line for a late bus. If I have to wait for 15 mins. at the corner of 11th and Harvard for a bus on Sunday, then get onto a bus with _no other passengers_, I want to be able to complain about it somehow--even just with a voicemail. It could even be set to ignore any bus that is less than 10 minutes late, or something.
"It's pointless to sit and talk about cutting back stops generally because everyone is thinking about different lines."
I'm fine starting with the three that serve our neighborhood--the 50 line (14th St.), the S line (16th St.) and the G2 (P St. line). Each one suffers from a glut of stops that are redundant and unnecessary. Does the 50 line, for example, *really* need stops at Rhode Island, P, Q, R, S, T & U? I should think not. Ditto the S line, which has stops every single block going up to Columbia Heights and beyond. It can take 10 minutes to travel 6 blocks, which pretty much renders bus transit an unacceptable option, as far as I'm concerned.
I understand many of the reasons for wanting to space out the metro stops more, however as a young, frequently unarmed female (that is, when I forget my mace), who likes to dress up and go out, having a metro bus stop a half-block from my house encourages me to take the metro home, decreasing the distance I need to walk late at night by myself. It also discourages drunk driving, another bonus.
Until this city is generally safer, or at least, until the side-neighborhood streets are better lit, i'm OK with the frequent stops.
1. Second bus in any bus bunch must stop for all yellow lights.... Can't count the times I've missed TWO buses at 14th and Penn because BOTH ran the red light across Penn. Then, I waited 20 minutes for the next one. Stupid. At a minimum the second bus should not be rushing keep up with first one. Won't stop all bunching, but at lease some. (Similarly, second bus should absolutely not be allowed to cut off motorists or bike riders to catch up to first).
2. Bus connection between Dupont and Columbia Heights -- metro connection between these two areas sucks. And, now that Columbia Heights is actually a place people want to go, a decent connection between the two would be nice. Either chance the terminus of the 42 to stop at Target, after crossing MtP, or put in a new route up New Hampshire, Florida, 14th.
3. Smart Cards or Tickets only, no cash.
4. Board in the front, exit in the rear, ALWAYS.
5. Dedicated lanes -- actually enforced (can they put the same license plate cameras on the buses that are now on the street sweepers?)
6. Express buses.
7. NEXT BUS!!! (And, I thought the reason this was not 95% reliable was b/c bus drivers didn't like to turn it on...)
8. Better cross town bus service (see Dupont/COHI example above), I'm sure there are more.h
As someone who rides the S line from Mt. Pleasant every day, I can say I'd much rather keep my stop than save a few minutes (as a rough calculation, it would become worth it for me to walk another 5 minutes to a stop when it saves me 10 minutes, which isn't likely without other measures).
As a transit planner, I sometimes amuse myself in the mornings by playing the "which stops would I keep" game based on the volumes at each stop -- what's funny is that I find myself keeping most of the stops between Newton and U Street (I'd maybe eliminate 2 out of the 9 stops). I think it would be easier to eliminate some of the stops between U Street and Scott Circle, however (flatter terrain, fewer riders anyway).
On heavily traveled routes where you might be boarding more than 10 people per stop, it's more an issue that people are so slow boarding -- but those folks are still going to board, whether they do it at 1 stop or at 2.
I pretty much agree with everything on DCMama's list, but if replacing cash with tickets is not feasible, WMATA should at least move from accepting dollar bills to dollar coins. I believe they already stopped taking pennies, which was a step in the right direction. But it often takes so long to board because people try to pay with dollar bills that are years past their prime. Coins (at least valid US coins) rarely have that problem.
Any way to encourage riders to exit through the back door, especially on routes where it might be common for several people to board at any stop. Maybe use cattle prods or something?
The two exceptions to getting off in back should be for those with special needs who need the lowering bus, and those who have their bikes riding on the front (lest the bus take off with their bike).
amen, washcycle.
and, dcmama's list is good, to the last. i can't get behind anyone that calls it "cohi". yuck.
"as a rough calculation, it would become worth it for me to walk another 5 minutes to a stop when it saves me 10 minutes, which isn't likely without other measures"
How do you figure? I can't begin to tell you how many times a bus has missed a traffic light because it's had to stop and let one person on or off...and then move onto the next intersection and let someone else on or off...and then on to the next intersection...and so on. Over the course of a two mile ride, cutting the number of stops in half could cut down substantially on the trip time.
I just can't believe that walking an extra block to get to a bus stop is that big of a deal, particularly when people routinely walk 6-8 blocks to get to Metro stations. Yeah, I know that Metro and the bus are two different things--but I fail to see what prevents bus riders from hoofing it an extra block or two. What good is it to have the convenience of a bus stop right outside your front door when it takes you 15 minutes to travel 10 blocks? Metro officials are on the record as stating they'd like to cut down the number of bus stops by 1/3 - 1/2, but are hesitant to do so out of fear of public outcry. Of course people who lose the stop at the end of their block might get upset, but if metro plans the stops well and communicates the benefits of having fewer of them, I'm fairly certain they can weather the criticism.
In the morning, it takes me anywhere from 15-30 minutes to get from 16th & Newton to Farragut Square. The variation depends mainly on 2 things: how heavy traffic is, and how many people are getting on/off the bus at each stop. Sure, skipping stops saves some time, but alot of that time savings is because we're not waiting for people to board/alight. You save time when the bus doesn't stop, but the question is how much time.
You can handle the issue with missing lights by placing the bus stops on the far side of the intersection, so it goes through the light before it stops. You can also implement signal priority, which holds the green light as the bus approaches. And of course there is the holy grail of all bus riders, dedicated lanes.
While I agree in principle that buses should not stop every block, as I said before I think that every two or three blocks is perfectly reasonable, and there may be times when closer spacing makes sense (hilly topography, major destinations or transfer points, or some kind of barrier such as a major intersection between stops). Also, since buses do not have the same reliability, speed, or quality of service as Metro, we cannot expect the walkshed for a bus stop to be the same as for a Metro stop.
No, the walkshed for bus stops won't equal Metro stops, but considering the number of bus stops throughout the city, that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Dedicated bus lanes and signal priority would be ideal, yes...but cash-strapped Metro isn't likely to implement those anytime soon (particularly the dedicated bus lanes, that would require significant reconfiguration of practically all of the major inner city arteries). Smarter placing of stops would be most helpful, as would enforcing the "exit out the back" rule...which, coupled with a reduction in the number of stops just might make a trip aboard a Metro bus slightly less aggravating.
someone touched on it earlier, but the biggest impediment to removing bus stops will not the the upwardly mobile young folk riding the S2 and the 30s...it's going to be the old ladies riding the X2 and the W4 who will raise holy hell if they lose the bus stop they've been using for 42 years.
one of the things that causes the most anxiety for me using the bus system is not having any idea how long I will have to wait. it is not uncommon to wait 20, 30 and even 40 minutes for a bus. if they had "next bus" and I could SEE that it's going to be 30 minutes until the next bus arrives; then I can grab a cab, head towards a metro, or start walking to my destination. once you have committed 10 or 15 minutes of waiting at a bus stop, you're sure that the bus will be there "anytime now..." and then you keep waiting.
I'm an individual that is gung-ho about being car-free and moved to DC just so I could live without a car. but honestly, the inefficiency of the public transportation system here has gotten me into looking for a car or scooter to get around in. when you have to make sure to give yourself an hour lead time to get 3-4 miles there is a problem, I think.
I understand why buses bunch at times, but this morning I was waiting for the D6 at 11th and C NE, which isn't that far from where the bus originates (Stadium/Armory), and we ended up with back-to-back-to-back buses, the first being completely full, the next two being completely empty. How the hell do we end up with a bunchabuses that early on in the route? I understand when i catch the bus going home that K Street tends to suck and the buses can get bunched up there, but in the morning, that close to Stadium/Armory, it should never happen.
Dedicated bus lanes are a nice idea in theory, but judging from how well it works on 7th St. NW between the Mall and Mass Ave, I'd say it's just a waste of paint.
The biggest issue with deadheading/creating gaps downtown is that there's no place to essentially "pull to the siding" without royally screwing traffic.
Of course, we all know the solution: ziplines. Ziplines everwhere.