Grieve-Smith on Transportation

My family and I just got back from a trip to San Juan Batista, the capital of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. I've got lots of things to say about the transportation situation there, particularly in contrast with that in Santo Domingo, on the next island over. I'll start with our best and worst experiences.

The best experience was undoubtedly the Tren Urbano, the metrorail line that opened in 2005. It's quiet, clean, uncrowded and comfortable. There are a few underground sections, but most of the line is elevated on concrete pillars. Payment is almost identical to the New York City pay-per-ride Metrocard, down to the (English) wording on the receipts; the main difference is that we had to "swipe out" at the end.

The main criticism of the project - and I'm guessing the reason it wasn't very crowded when we took it - is that it doesn't go to any of the major tourist destinations. Historic Old San Juan, the beaches and hotels of the Condado and Isla Verde, the government buildings in Santurce and Puerta de Tierra, and the two airports are all on peninsulas and islands along the coast, and the Tren terminus at Sagrado Corazón is separated from all those attractions by a mile (at the least) and two expressways.

There is, however, a bus terminal at Sagrado Corazón, and in fact there are bus connections at all the Tren Urbano stations. And that brings me to our worst experience. On Monday we decided to visit the neighborhood of Río Piedras, which is home to the University of Puerto Rico and its botanical garden. It's also served by two Tren Urbano stops, so we thought it would be simple getting there. It was - once we got to the Tren.

At around 12:10, after a leisurely brunch, we walked to the nearest eastbound bus station to our hotel at the corner of Ashford and Andino, and waited ... and waited. I had checked the bus map before leaving and seen that both the C-10 and B-21 buses went from that stop to the Tren at Sagrado Corazón. The C-10 is supposed to come every 30 minutes on weekdays and the B-21 every 20-25 minutes; there was no more schedule information than that available.

There were already several people waiting at the stop when we got there. Many of them eventually wandered off to find other ways to get where they were going, or maybe just other things to do. A C-53 bus, which did not go to the Tren, stopped at one point, and several westbound buses as well. I had the idea of taking a westbound C-10 to the Parada 18 transfer point and catching an eastbound bus on another line, but none of the buses in San Juan show their routes on the left side or the rear, so once they got to us I had no idea which bus we were looking at.

A B-21 bus finally showed up around 1:30. We boarded and from then on had no problem: a relatively quick trip to Sagrado Corazón, then a short train ride to the University. But we had waited over an hour and a quarter for a bus that was supposed to come every 20-25 minutes. Even if a bus broke down or a driver missed his or her shift, what happened to the bus that was supposed to be behind it? There was no sign of the C-10 at all.

So that's the best and the worst. There's more from Puerto Rico coming up: counterflow bus lanes! Privatized routes! Transvestite trolleys! Stay tuned.

I recently got back from a trip to Albuquerque, and had a chance to ride the Rapid Ride buses which have been speeding bus passengers along the Central Avenue route since 2004. They use 60-foot articulated buses like here in New York, but theirs are low-floor and have three sets of doors instead of two. Getting off at the Frontier restaurant (announced by name, presumably sponsored, awesome green chile cheeseburgers), a woman tried to exit the front door to retrieve her bike, but the driver told her she had to exit through the middle doors. That would definitely speed boarding, as I discussed the other day.

Another feature that can speed the buses is signal priority: traffic lights will stay yellow a little longer for the bus, or change to green a bit sooner. I'd heard about it but never seen it in action. However, I had sure spent my share of time waiting at stoplights during my two years in Albuquerque! This week, I noticed several points when the buses went through lights that seemed to stay yellow for an awfully long time. I remember hardly any red lights, but those few seemed to be over pretty quick. Mainly, I just had the impression that the bus got from downtown to campus or Old Town a lot quicker than I remembered from 1999.

The third feature is that the Rapid Ride routes are limited-stop, like our limited routes in New York. Both of the current routes have corresponding local routes for people who want the intermediate stops.

Building on the success of the Central Avenue "Red Line," in 2007 the city inaugurated the "Blue Line" along Coors, I-40 and Lomas. I had dinner with a friend who lives in the West Mesa sprawl and was the last person I would have expected to see on the bus. But she told me that she now takes the Blue Line to campus and has been saving lots of money.

I'd love to see signal priority implemented here in New York. PlaNYC recommended it for the Q18 bus to Astoria, which is a good pilot route. All I know is that I'd get around town a lot faster if buses didn't spend so much time at red lights.

Again, this is a feature that is often touted as "BRT," but it doesn't have to be implemented as part of a BRT package. Rapid Ride has several of the fingerprints of BRT consultants (name, logo, limited stops, low-floor articulated buses) but not exclusive right-of-way or prepayment.

I honestly think my friend would have taken it even without the name or logo. The speed was obviously a big factor, but convenience was too: when I lived there, getting to the West Mesa from campus involved taking two local buses and transferring; the express buses ran only a few times a day. Now the Rapid Ride Blue runs every 15-20 minutes until 6PM, and every half hour after that until 9PM. She also mentioned that the free bus passes for UNM faculty, staff and students were a big factor in getting her to try the service. I honestly don't know why more colleges don't offer free bus passes; it's cheaper than building parking lots!

Photo: wastemanagementdude / Flickr

A few times a week, I get off the subway and walk one short block down a hill to catch a bus. The bus is going down the hill with me, and sometimes I see it when I get to the top of the subway steps. There are always enough other people waiting at the bus stop so that if I see it at the top of the hill I know I can take my time walking and still make it.

Until one day recently, when I was halfway down the hill and noticed that almost everyone was on the bus. They had all gotten on so quickly that I had to run to catch the bus. What changed? It was one of the new low-floor hybrid buses.

There are many things that make buses slow, and "dwell time" is one of them. I was mildly inconvenienced having to run to catch that bus, but I'd have been pretty happy if I were already down the hill waiting to board, or on the bus waiting for everyone else to get on so the bus could get going.

Level boarding is one of the "features" of BRT, but of course you can have level boarding without any of the other features. Prepayment of fares is another one, so that you don't have to stand in line while everyone digs through their change or dips their metrocards. NYC Transit has level boarding on lots of buses now, and is testing prepayment on the Select Bus Service on Fordham Road. Maybe soon they'll roll it out in other locations.

It'd be kind of lame if we had to wait for "BRT" to get pre-payment or proof-of-payment citywide, when bus systems around the world have had it for decades without any of the other "BRT" features. Kind of lame - like waiting for six people to swipe a metrocard before you can get on the bus.

Image: njt4148 / Flickr

Projeto vai transformar as canaletas. Bem Paraná.

Curitiba, March 3, 2009 - The construction of the new subway in Curitiba will transform the canaletas, lanes currently used exclusively for the system of bi-articulated express buses, into a grand communal space. Dubbed "Vias Parques," the current busways will be given over to an extensive network of pedestrian and cyclist greenways with trees and playgrounds. The subway will run under the canaletas, and the place where buses run today will be dedicated to people.

This innovative concept for the integration of the subway in Curitiba, retaining priority for mass transit while elevating the status of pedestrians and cyclists, was conceived during the preliminary studies for the subway system, conducted in 2005 in cooperation with the Brazilian Urban Railway Corporation (CBTU). These studies also indicated the alignment for the new mode (the North and South Axes), the length (22 kilometers), the number of stations (21 to 23) and the construction method (mostly cut-and-cover). The first line of the subway, from Santa Cândida to the South Industrial Zone (CIC Sul), will be 22 kilometers long, of which 19 kilometers will be underground. This Blue Line is expected to serve roughly 500,000 passengers at the outset.

Despite what some may think, there is a certain amount of prestige attached to riding a bus in New York City. I've made that observation in blog comments before, on Streetsblog and more recently on the Overhead Wire, but I think it deserves its own blog post.

Contrary to the way that Peter Smith presents it, I am not claiming that riding the bus here is always a prestigious activity. What I am saying, based on my own observation, is that there are plenty of middle-class and even upper-class New Yorkers who ride the bus. I'm referring here specifically to local public buses; express and long-distance buses have their own idiosyncrasies.

The Upper East Side of Manhattan is one of the most wealthy places in the world. If you ride one of the buses that go through it, you'll see lots of well-off, well-dressed people, including white people, older adults and women. Many people ride the bus who might be considered "elite": for example, I once ran into former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern (who has his own car and an illegally reserved parking spot in the middle of Central Park) on the M57.

A middle-aged Asian female friend who lives on the Upper East Side once told me that she avoids the subway; my understanding was that it was because in her mind she has an association between the subway and crime that goes back to the graffiti-covered trains of the 1970s. In any case, she took buses (or sometimes taxis) everywhere she went.

As you get further from the Upper East Side, the prestige of local buses diminishes, and in most of Brooklyn and Queens until in Hempstead or Mount Vernon or Paterson they're largely used by poor and working-class Black and Latino people - and college students. Further afield, in towns like Kingston and Hartford they're mostly seen as welfare transportation for the homeless and the mentally disabled.

Let me be clear here: I'm not saying that the bus-riding experience here is necessarily any better (objectively, in terms of speed or comfort) than that in Garden City, or in Syracuse or Denver. I'm saying that here, better-off people are willing to ride the bus; any prestige that attaches to the bus is through association with these relatively prestigious riders. It's not "bull shit," and I'm willing to defend the validity of my observation against all comers.

Regardless, why might it be that upper-middle-class people are willing to ride the bus in New York? I think it's all relative. In Manhattan bus service is pretty frequent, and owning and maintaining a car is an expensive and exhausting proposition. Why would they prefer it to the subway? Because of the daylight and the relatively low historical crime rate, but also because the subway doesn't really work for travel within the Upper East Side or from Upper East to Upper West. The Second Avenue Subway, when it finally gets built, may change some of that.

This fact has strong implications for bus design and planning. The main one is that convenience, safety and reliability are much more important in attracting riders than any branding strategy. The branding on NYC buses is lame and always has been; the buses have "gotten people out of their cars" (more accurately, prevented them from shifting to cars) simply by being more convenient than a car - and that's more due to the relative lack of car subsidies than anything the buses have done. Want successful buses? Tear down the bypasses and tear up the parking lots.

The other is that prestigious associations are the best marketing strategy, and we already have that in NYC. NYC Transit is wasting precious money and effort in branding its "Select Bus" routes. Forget the fancy paint job; people will ride the bus if it's more convenient. They know it's good enough for the rich folks on Madison Avenue, so why wouldn't it be good for them? More importantly, don't think you can skimp on real, honest improvements in convenience, safety and reliability and make up for it through branding. New Yorkers have seen it all.