Busing

Advertisement for ACF Brill Model H-9-S Suburban Motor Coach, built for a former interurban trolley line, the Boston, Worcester & New York Street Railway Co., better known as "The B&W Lines". (Ad from the Sept. 1937 issue of the "Transit Journal", Collection of Rick Russell)

It might be that I have low expectations, but I've been thinking about the Lyndsey Layton piece on the Metrobus system from earlier in the week. Planetizen headlines the story as D.C.'s Metrobus: A Model of Inefficiency, and I think that's pretty harsh.

There are oodles and oodles of improvement opportunities in the Metrobus system. If you read any of my postings on the bus system, you'll see that I truly believe that. And I've had bad experiences on DC-area buses too, walking from downtown to home, never being passed by an X bus, having an X bus driver pass the stop without even slowing down, waiting forever for a 30s bus on Pennsylvania Avenue, seeing 7 buses go by in the other direction, plus all those 70s buses on 7th Street, etc.

OTOH, there is relatively high frequency of service compared to other places, and a number of bus routes provide direct service that is faster to get to many places than it would be to go to and take the subway, i.e., X bus from the H Street NE neighborhood to downtown, 90s buses from Adams-Morgan to Capitol Hill etc. At least that is my experience, living where I do.

Plus, I have ridden bus systems in a number of other places around the country, especially since I have been trained on transit riding through my use of transit in the Washington region. I.e., I figured out how to buy a weekly pass for the Rapid in Cleveland while I was at the airport, and that it would be cheaper to do so, "merely" by reading the instructions and making some opportunity cost calculations.

This includes New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Louisville among other places, and I think the frequency of our system compares well, and is in fact better than most, despite the bunching, late buses, early buses, and overcrowding. (I laughed riding the number 6 bus in Portland, which a rider said was called "The Iron Pimp" by bus drivers, because it is a rough route. All I will say is that their "Martin Luther King Avenue" seems quite idyllic compared to the one in DC or Detroit...)

I've also discussed the Ride On system in Montgomery County, which complements the Metrobus and Metrorail system as a model that needs to be considered by more jurisdictions in the region. (The York Transit system in Greater Toronto that I described in a blog entry last week uses a similar model -- "slow" buses in neighborhoods that take people to transfer points that provide access to faster, limited stop service.)

Bus stop at Fourth and H Streets NE, Washington, DC.

Whereas I think the Post editorial today, "Missing the Bus," is a little harsh as well, what it states is true:

bus passengers here, nearly two-thirds of them female, tend to be poorer, blacker and less likely to own cars than the predominantly white, well-heeled and professional passengers who ride Metrorail. Lacking cars and access to rail transit, many passengers ride the bus because they have no choice. Lacking clout and powerful connections, they are too weak to make their complaints heard.... For years Metrobus was ignored as yesteryear's transit system while funds were lavished on its more glamorous rail sibling. Today the region lives with the result.

It is undeniable that the bus system is but a step-child to the comparatively sexy Metrorail system.

Sexy subway riders. Flickr photo by Burnt Pixel.

Index Keywords: transit