As described in a previous post, Metro has recently completed the first phase of implementing the new bus stop design and placement guidelines. This first phase included consolidating bus stops along four routes in the District of Columbia. As noted before, these routes were chosen because they have the highest number of stops per mile within the Metrobus system.
Below is a complete listing of the bus stops that were removed. As suggested before, please let us know in the comments of other corridors or segments of bus routes that you feel have stops too often. Read more…
As bus service providers, we must wrestle with often-conflicting goals: providing fast, yet accessible, bus service. Our customers expect that once they are on the bus, the service will be fast and reliable, but that when they want to board the bus, a stop will be as close to their origin or destination as possible.
Metro often receives complaints that our buses stop every block, making travel times slow. And with stops on virtually every block, it is difficult for our schedulers to accurately determine how often the bus will stop, making the establishment of time points for accurate scheduling more art than science.
However, most times when we propose to remove an underused or poorly placed stop, the few people using the stop will mobilize, often lobbying their elected officials to have it reinstalled. Everyone wants faster service; they just don’t want it at the expense of their stop.
As Metro plans for the future, expecting ridership to increase from a current average of about 750,000 trips per day to more than 1 million, the question of how so many new passengers will access our system is a critical one. Our most recent passenger survey estimates that about 39% of our riders arrive by car – either parking or being dropped off; 33% walk to our system; 22% take a bus; 4% by commuter rail and <1% arrive on bike. Accommodating those new riders with the same modal split as we see today could be quite costly for the region. Therefore, Metro decided to take a look at where we could improve our mode share for those modes that require fewer financial resources – namely bicycling and walking. In 2009, we began a study that would provide a framework to help us achieve these higher shares.
Our Metrorail Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Improvements Study has identified strategies that will enhance bicycle and pedestrian access and connectivity in and around Metrorail stations. It provides recommendations for a range of physical infrastructure improvements, as well as policies and programs to encourage more walk and bike trips to stations. These recommendations fall into two main categories – those that Metro can implement alone, and those that require coordination with local partners. Read more…
Potential of Improved Running Ways to Increase Bus Ridership, Reduce Bus Operating Costs, and Increase Effective Road Capacity
Buses operating on surface streets in mixed traffic experience delay from a variety of sources, including traffic congestion, bus stops, traffic signals and passenger movements. As our region continues to grow and economic conditions make bus an ever-more appealing option for travelers of all kinds, Metrobus corridors experience more and more delay. This delay results in increased costs for bus passengers in terms of travel time, and increases the cost of providing bus service: additional buses and operators must be added to maintain desired service frequencies.
One of Metro’s proposed solutions to the increasing costs and continued degradation of bus service is the Priority Corridor Network (PCN). Metro has identified 23 high ridership corridors to receive priority treatments, which consist of both service adjustments as well as improvements to the bus (street) runningway. Service adjustments proposed include restructured routes and schedules, skip-stop operations and additional service overlays. Runningway improvements could include bus lanes, transit signal priority, queue jumpers, bus stop location, and off-board fare payment systems.
The Metrorail Station at Union Station is the busiest station in the Metrorail system, with 70,000 passengers entering and exiting daily. This station has experienced substantial ridership growth in the past three decades from the development of surrounding DC neighborhoods, expanded intercity travel and commuter rail’s growing popularity. The existing station, designed in the 70s, can no longer accommodate the current and future passenger travel. Passengers experience congestion on a daily basis.
In late 2009, Metro, in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), initiated a Union Station Capacity and Access Improvements Study. The objective is to assess capacity deficiencies and develop alternatives to enhance pedestrian access, increase station capacity, reduce travel time and improve connectivity to the other transportation modes. To be able to compare the benefits of the proposed alternatives, Metro used a pedestrian simulation tool, developed by Legion, to quantify and assess the performance throughout the station’s north mezzanine under the current station conditions and with the proposed capacity improvements. We’ve put this post up so people can see the kinds of analysis tools Metro is using to evaluate station capacity and to visualize capacity and operating issues. Metro will be using the pedestrian simulation tool and analysis at other stations experiencing crowded conditions, such as the Gallery Place-Chinatown station.
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