Tired of your bus being late? Here’s a way you can help fix that.
Your bus isn’t late by accident, it’s a choice that someone made…
APR 11, 2023
There is a special type of frustration that comes from when your bus is late, and you aren’t sure when it’ll show up. If you can’t rely on the bus, then finding a different transportation solution that you can rely on becomes a top priority. That’s bad for you. If you ditch the bus and get a car, then your new “solution” creates problems for everyone else since you’re polluting more, competing for parking and you’re taking up road space slowing down the rest of traffic. So, if you want to ride the bus and the bus operators want you on the bus and everyone else wants you on the bus– then why isn’t the bus reliable and what can you do about it?
For starters– the main reason your bus is late is probably because it got held up in traffic. The people who set your bus route schedule times estimated that it’d take your bus a certain amount of time to get from where it was to you but there was more traffic than they planned for. And for buses delay tends to bring about more delay which results in the frustrating phenomenon of “bus bunching” where your bus shows up very full and immediately behind it is an empty bus. This tool does an AMAZING job clearly & quickly demonstrating why “bus bunching” happens.
Also, not to get too philosophical, but lateness is a construct based on a stated expected time to be somewhere. Easy way bus agencies can prevent late buses? Stop providing arrival estimates or just assume travel is slower. Unless the bus agency is making service so frequent that estimated arrival time isn’t needed, then this isn’t a particularly helpful solution.
But since we aren’t going to fix your late bus problem by fixing time, let’s look at space. Your bus is late because it is stuck in traffic and the good news is there are solutions to that!
The most effective solution is to get a physically separated bus-only lane for your bus. Then your bus doesn’t have to deal with cars clogging the road; it can just drive and operate more like a subway. Tons of cities have built dedicated bus-only lanes and when they do reliability, bus speeds, and overall bus ridership go way way up. It’s probably one of the most cost-effective quick-build tools we have for fighting climate change and hurting the pocketbook of aggressive petrostates.
If a full-on bus lane (or even just a painted one) seems like too tall an order, and you’re looking for a more digestible thing to ask for, try bus bulbs!
“Bus bulbs are curb extensions that align the bus stop with the parking lane, allowing buses to stop and board passengers without ever leaving the travel lane,” says the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Basically– instead of having the bus pull over to pick you up at the stop, cities can build it so the stop bulges out into the street to meet the bus. That way your bus doesn’t have to do the funky inefficient dance of getting in & out of traffic at every stop. It also makes the road safer for everyone since cars and bike users don’t have to deal with a bus weaving in and out of traffic and it reduces the amount of distance a person has to travel in a crosswalk.
Their cost is minor (it’s a little concrete and the labor to put it in mainly) and it shaves off maybe half a minute per stop which might not sound like much, but it adds up the further you take the bus. The ride is a tad smoother too since there is less weaving in & out of traffic. The big advantage is that your bus will be a lot more reliable since it reduces the unpredictable variable of other driver’s behaviors when your bus would otherwise need to merge back into traffic.
So why aren’t they the default? Because people haven’t decided to make it that way. The idea has been around for a while, but elected officials have chosen to not prioritize transit this way. You can help them make different choices!
Next time you’re waiting for a late bus, take a minute to google your Mayor’s phone number and make a quick call saying “Hi I’m (your name), I’m waiting for the (bus route) bus at (where you are), and it’d be a big help if the city could build some bus bulbs and make my bus more reliable. Thanks!” And that’s it. Ramp up your impact by telling the other people on the stop about it and encourage them to do the same!
Your bus can be more reliable and faster and you can win the changes needed to make that happen. Want to know more about how you can win bus bulbs on your favorite bus route? Email me to set up a training session– Carter@carterlavin.com. Or if you’d like to fund a bus advocate’s training, let me know!