Bus Circulators as the sexy trend in transit

Next Page feature, 1/28/2007, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. By Robert Firth and the staff of Informing Design.

It was Rapid Bus.

Now I think it's circulators, as they are being considered in Pittsburgh (see "Transit recommendations include linking Downtown to Oakland,"from the Pittsburgh Business Times and "The Next Page: Shaking up mass transit the Brazilian way" from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and now Baltimore, you can put in your two cents on this survey. (Austin here: "RECA proposes downtown bus boost" from the Austin Business Journal.)



In DC the concept is getting expanded to places like Adams-Morgan and maybe the Navy Yard. (See "Circulator Bus to Add Adams Morgan and Nats Routes" from WTOP.)

My sense is that the Circulator is a good idea, but there isn't the kind of demand necessary for the frequency provided, except at certain times of day and night. Circulator expansion isn't built on actual need, but perceived need and a desire to add visitors to places that want them.

What we don't know is where the patrons originate from and whether or not they will use transit.

I like the Circulator bus, partly because it's cheaper than the regular bus ($1) and it comes a lot, which you can't say for many of the traditional Metrobus lines. So what I suppose if many of the buses are empty...

Oh yeah, Circulators are really marketed to atypical transit users. IMO anyway.

Washington Post graphic from 12/2005.

I will say that the Baltimore survey is pretty good, and a Circulator makes a lot of sense there, given how disconnected and discoordinated (in the words of Steve Pinkus) the transit system is, not to mention that great transit options don't exist for many of the destinations. All require multiple modes to get to your final destination.