I've tried out the bus some more.
It has been an okay experience, but it would really make it more convenient if they had more buses with consistent routes. I should be able to plan my trip by looking at a map. I shouldn't have to consult a schedule and time trips and worry about missing a connection.
I was going to complain about busses that never came (twice), busses that came too early (as much as six minutes), busses that run too late (as much as 10 minutes) and make me miss connections, but all that would be no biggie if there were just more busses.
There's a built in inefficiency that comes from running on a schedule - the schedule has to be built on a timeline that the bus can usually keep up with, so that means that many times, the bus stops or drives slow so as to not run too early. Dumb.
They should just go as fast as they can with no fixed schedule and only try to to stay within some range of minutes behind the prior bus - only slowing down to prevent run-away delay where a late bus gets more late because so many people have stacked up waiting for it making for more stops on and off. Conversely, a fast bus keeps getting closer to the bus in front of him because he is less likely to need to stop to pick-up passengers and so becomes less likely to drop off.
A couple opportunities for optimization exist too. Often a bus stop is just after an intersection. If the bus is stuck at a red light anyway, it should offer to let people off there instead as long as there aren't any people waiting at the stop or bikes/wheelchairs needing to deboard. Also, there should be a way to indicate that I can get off at this or the next stop. If no one needs to get off at this stop, go ahead and skip it.
They have some routes with these long articulated busses. Why? Just run twice as many busses. It will make it more convenient and you can run them faster (because they carry half the passengers, they'll make fewer stops.)
I'm sure that Valley Metro has as many busses as they can afford (I think they're about half mill a piece), but I say that more people would ride it if they could rely on it and it had the same freedom of timing like driving.
I am annoyed by the stupid fare system:
- Why would anyone buy the 3 and 7 day local passes? They are consecutive day passes that are exactly 3 or 7x as expensive as a one day pass. I'm convinced this is some lame strategy for handling $5s, $10s and $20s - take their money and an extra $2.50 for not having exact change.
- Why can't I buy any number of one day passes? If all I have is a twenty when I walk up to a bus, I should be able to just get 8 one day passes with one being for today and the others for use any other day. Better yet, I get one card with 8 days loaded on it. For the holders info, the reader should mark the card to indicate days bought and a mark for each day spent so the rider can know when it'll be empty.
- Why can't I purchase and print passes online? Encode a number, print a bar code, sync numbers each night, if someone frauds it (prints and uses multiple copies), charge them or blacklist the card and name. You wouldn't be able to print and use for the same day, but that wouldn't be so bad - at least I'm not stuck waiting for the postal mail.
It's all pretty clearly set up to try to take your money. It's not even subtle. I suspect this has the opposite effect. Give someone a slight discount and the convenience and I think they'll buy more. I might not take the bus because I don't have exact fare. If I got, say, 10 one-day passes for $20, I would be encouraged to buy that for the discount and encouraged to use them because I have them already. (There's a natural decrease in perceived value of money already spent and so a higher readiness to spend it. It's why arcades use tokens.)
Finally, I'm annoyed by the handcuffed bus they're putting in. They call it light rail, but it's just a skirted trolley that's slower, has fewer stops, more expensive, isn't flexible and hogs two lanes of traffic 24/7. It also hoses up left turns and cross street traffic. And the price? 1.4 Billion! At 20 miles of track, that's over $1100 per linear inch. I think that's about $4.6 per square inch given two ten foot wide lanes. You could cover it in a three layers of twenty dollar bills for that money. According to their docs, expected ridership goes from 26,000 to 50,000/day over ten years - so over ten years, they'd have to charge every rider over $10 for each ride. I didn't count for interest because it is claimed that financing costs are part of the 1.4G$. I'm not sure this bargain counts for the operating cost. For the money you can buy busses for the length of the track. Not bus service, you could buy enough busses to park end-to-end for 20 miles!
Here are some others annoyed by light rail:
The ultimate answer? I'm imagining a system where people enter their start and end points and the system on the fly tries to fit you on a van-sized vehicle that's already going that way right now. Sort of a super traveling salesman type algorithm. No schedules, minimal stops, no transfers, very few empty miles. That would make for a cool simulation. It would essentially be like a cab, but without door to door service (traffic light worth streets) and with the expectation that it is shared but you wouldn't have to wait as long for it, it would cost a lot less and be more tree-huggie. The system could perform a cost analysis for each vehicle to carry the passenger to their destination (least wait, lowest transit time, lowest other passenger delay, lowest fuel costs which should make it avoid using empty or near-empty vehicles.) It should also optimize for refueling and operator breaks/shift-change. It should automatically account for wrecks, construction and other sorts of traffic delays. It should try to have the most route flexibility so it can broaden the on-the-way options. There will be a natural tendency for people to pre-book a little, but just give a cost for last minute cancellations, minimal waiting, and missed rides.
Edit: It's called DRT or Demand Responsive Transport (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_responsive_transport)