We Deserve Better Buses
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2024
- Public Transit in America is always an uphill battle, especially when it comes to buses. Bus Transit is too often late, unreliable, and hard to access to non-transit fans. Yet at the same time, so many of our issues in our society are caused by the transportation sector - so we NEED bus transportation. We need GOOD public transportation. So how do we update our urban planning policies to improve buses? We need more dedicated bus lanes, Transit Signal Priority, better bus stations. Everything. There are so many advantages that come from these bus improvements, but there's also so much room to get it wrong. Today, I'll talk about the good and the bad of bus rapid transit and now we can improve our public transportation!
#UrbanPlanning #PublicTransportation #BusRapidTransit
All footage was taken by me (AJ Tabura) or licensed from their respective sources. Attribution is listed below for applicable images.
Special thanks to:
Andreea
me
As always, subscribe if you wanna see more public transportation videos and check out my twitter for more urbanism content!
twitter.com/AjTabura
Singapore is a good place in the world 🗺
I think buses should be notified if anyone is at a bus stop. If no one is there waiting to get on, they should be able to keep going without stopping.
Omg son GREAT VIDEO BU.....T {that title GOT a joke so insert it here}
You know bet if I ask My Lola {Philipino por Grandmother}... That title be dead lol
When I visited the US for the first time, I was shocked by the lack of good public transport and lack of bicycle infrastructure. For me these things are very important for my quality of life. The fact that young people like yourself try to make it better gives me hope for a better life for lots of people in the US. Please continue making these great video's.
"The light rail makes itself known, but the bus doesn't" - that is the most insightful thing I've heard about mass transit!
Riding the bus gets way too much hate. Even with all the problems, it's still so chill. You can read a book and just do your own thing and not have to worry about traffic. After I started taking the bus instead of my car, I noticed how much more pleasant my trips were, as it's such a pain to sit in red lights that last for minutes, while on the bus I never even noticed when we were at a light.
Thank you for saying this. A lot of people forget that transit use isn't ONLY about the cost to the user or time savings (which are, of course, important); however, the stress of not having to drive is a BIG one for me. Driving overall is very stressful and just feels unsafe even with the trillions of dollars poured into personal automobile infrastructure.
In my opinion cash payments are still necessary for bus transit. Not every station/stop is going to have a working machine for ticket purchasing, and the people who need to use the bus the most (poor people, immigrants, homeless, etc) are also the most likely to be unbanked, without a credit card, or without a smartphone
It's part of good maintenance to make sure machines work at every station, but also it's good that thankfully the station ticket machines in the twin cities have the option for cash payments
Cashless payments also lead to more spending which can harm at risk communities, as well as less privacy
Don't forget people who don't have a driving license.
I think bus lines with dedicated bus lanes is a win win. Used the Orange Line in Los Angeles to get to work (it is it's own legit line almost like it's supposed to be a train line but it isn't). it helps link up to the Ventura transit system which I never used and reach to the red line subway to downtown LA. If they ever decided to upgrade the bus line to a literail, I am sure no one would complain since I think it was supposed to be.
iirc the orange was actually meant to be a rail line of some sort but was shot down by nimbys, resulting in it being replanned as brt
@@ddanenel such a bummer. But understanding the line, it does literally cut through basically all neighborhoods. With the exception of Chatsworth, Canoga, Winnetka, Van Nuys and North Hollywood. (OH and almost forgot Sepulveda)
@@ddanenel Yeah I remember something similar, it was planned as a metro expansion but a conservative politician managed to pass a bill insisting that all light rail build in LA county would need to be in a tunnel, making light rail untenably expensive without heavy government funding.
This talk about 10 minutes buses being frequent is suprising. In SE london, 3-5 minutes is normal for a bus
I remember reading someone say that what Americans call Bus Rapid Transit, Europeans call... The bus lmao. Our bus infrastructure is light years behind Europe but hopefully this is a start on the right track
In the Netherlands we have the so-called "ov- chipkaart". With this card you can travel on all public transport in the country. The only thing you have to do is put money (or a subscription) on the card (you can do this in many different ways) and put your card in front of a scanner every time you enter or leave a bus, or enter or leave a train station. The chip reader gives a beep and a green light if everything is OK, so the busdriver doesn't have to check anything. It's very fast and easy.
Even with a 10-15 minute wait I regularly see people take ride share. I'd love to see 5-9 minute headways combined with signal priority and dedicated lanes.
Love when Albuquerque gets national positive recognition for something! Hope it shuts the ART critics up. It definitely had some issues initially, but the level of hate here for the project was really ridiculous. The car brain here is strong.
Here in Singapore,the Control Center tracks buses and tells buses to speed up or slow down depending on time intervals.(12-17 min) to prevent bus bunching(where 2 buses of the same bus service are at the same bus stop at the same time). Yet,I saw service 17 bunching with another service 17 at the bus stop so this might not be so effective
Though the twin cities is rather car centric, the twin cities is pretty good at bus rapid transit being that there are many bus lanes on our freeways and dedicated lanes in Minneapolis. I should know as a Minnesotan. My car centric suburb that I live in of Apple valley is very accessible by bus considering it’s a car centric suburb.
Fingers crossed they expand the Red Line north of the Mall of America to Downtown Minneapolis. I think that'd be a huge success and make Apple Valley even more accessible 🤞
@@AJTabura can’t wait, many in Apple valley need the bus.
The buses need to be high frequency
As much of a fan of rail transit that I am your video and many others have helped me understand why BRT is important and necessary. I'm a huge advocate for both now and understand they each have their place.
Great video!! I live in Indiana, and I've been keenly watching Indianapolis as it is implementing BRT. The red line was opened with much fanfare in 2019, construction is on for the purple line, and the blue line is planned but has faced some legal obstacles.
Indy's effort has included most of the bells/whistles of a robust BRT system (well protected stations, dedicated bus lanes/signals, pay before board, all electric fleet), though the pandemic certainly didn't help its launch.
Indy historically has some of the *worst* public transit of any city its size, and it's clear that IndyGo is trying to change that. I'm hopeful it really takes off!!
Sounds really cool!
When the redline first opened the fares were free for a couple of months. I lived along it and those first couple of months the busses were jam packed. It makes me wonder if people understand how much they could be saving by replacing car trips with bus trips even with paying the bus fare, if they would use it more.
We've had a hard time with it since most people that don't use it consider it a waste of money and cries about fixing potholes etc. The blue line was cancelled but let's hope IndyGo can change people's minds on it.
Fellow Minneapolis transit user here. At first I thought the mix of lettered and colored lines was random and confusing but it is actually used to designate lines that run in mixed traffic with signal priority (like the A line) and lines that run primarily in designated lanes or highway HOV lanes (like the orange line). So Metro Transit is making a pointed effort to designate the level of BRT service and features with this.
I’m so glad CZcams is recommending you to me bc you deserve way more views, I love these videos keep up the great work!
As someone from Curitiba (the BRT capital) it really helps a lot and is very reliable. It's a shame that here the buses have been stopped in time since 90', there is no technology, low floor, air conditioning, live schedule, the route that the bus takes inside the bus, better apps for use and payment. Sao Paulo is better in that sense but worse on dedicated lines.
It would be nice to have a bike connection too.
The problem is that our mayor (a fat frog looking like Jabba The Hunt) was Jaime Lemer's deputy (who brought these ideas) he was elected mayor by popularity, now he is mayor 2x again and NOTHING has been done.
The world will only improve when the 70' generation is dead, then those who stayed will think more about mobility, living without a car and climate change.
IMO first and foremost for all forms of buses, local and BRT included, transit priority signals should be implemented if dedicated bus lanes, upgraded shelters, and off-board ticketing can't be implemented IMO. Then the road infrastructure can have transit-related data and easily process them accordingly so even without dedicated lanes, buses could still maintain schedule primarily.
Once again, great video. Keep up the work!
This video is great! everything was clear and held my attention while still being very informative. Keep up the amazing work. :)
I really like you style doing videos! Very informative but not boring at all. I hope there is coming more content in the future.
Great video! As a fellow student at the U I am also excited for the E line and the associated 4th St/University Ave project to be completed.
I think buses should be notified if anyone is at a bus stop. If no one is there waiting to get on, they should be able to keep going without stopping.
🤓
Thanks AJ. You produce really fine, well researched videos but above all your enthusiasm regarding public transport is just wondrous.
Great video, AJ. BRT is an issue in Metro Vancouver.
Great videos!
No Charge at point of service transit... and remove street parking. There is value and a truly freeing feeling being able to hop on and off a bus/tram/train without having to fish out some card/cash or receipt, and it speeds boarding times too. Remove street parking because, why did anybody think being able to store your personal 2-3 tons of steel on a spot of the commons for long stretches of time was a good idea?
Could you elaborate on your first point? How would the fare be charged then? If you're suggesting having TVM at the bus stops (like in the video), wouldn't you then still have to show your receipt?
I agree on your second point for sure, but the carbrain will never stop whining about it. We need to at least remove street parking near the bus stops. Would be great if the lanes taken up by street parking were just used instead for cycling or even as a dedicated bus lane.
The best possible addition a train line can get, in my opinion, is an app that allows you to purchase tickets on your phone.
That way, more people who usually dont use the train can also have it as a an option. Certainly cheaper than an Uber.
You should become a Civil Engineer. You have a passion in urban planning.
AJ you're really good at making transit videos! I noticed that you haven't made a new one in a while. Please remedy this! (Especially for Twin Cities)
Great video from the city I live in
You need more subscribers.
You have to bring your bicycle, that's how I do it, preferably riding to the high point on the bus then downhill to the spot on my list. Depending where you are don't forget the vault
2:06 I don’t the 46 has any of the same stops as the 74 and A Line(besides 46th St Station) but they don’t stop at the same part of the station
That's amazing how americans are discovering a public transport. I live in a big european city and if tram (I use buses only when I have no other choice) will arrive in more than 10 minutes, I'm very disapointed. So thank you americans for showing me, that public transport in Europe is perfect❤
It’s not perfect US public transport is just THAT BAD
Where is the bus? Often there is a live map, really useful in the winter as the buses fall behind schedule. Barrow Alaska had live camera view on your TV, attached to the bus for several years.
I support bus transit, but I couldn’t help but laugh when you said you like to take the bus 💀
Where I live (Vancouver WA) the bus transit is abysmal. Good to know other cities have it better
🙌🙌
you can have few stations around, but many stations on demand in between
Nobody wants to ride a bus that takes 45 min and driving takes 15 min. L.A. has just that!!! And Culver City took away the bus lanes because people complained that it creates more traffic.
those "crappy brts" can be ok as long as they aren't trying to be or replace BRT- I like to call them enhanced bus service, and can function to cheaply give high quality busses across a wider area. that said they aren't at the level of a mass transit line and should never be used as a cop-out of a BRT, rather just and improvement over a bus line.
BRT can speed up the process of building out metro networks. The best way to build out BRT is to literally ban bastardizing it. And mandate the proper elements. Admittedly the Boston silver line should be abolished and merged into the green line.
Add a car tax and then use that to cover up the public transit costs. A lot of people would probably start using public transport then, and the tax money from cars might even reduce over time due to the switching, But that would be long term and if that does happen then they could start charging a nominal price.
To be honest, public transport shouldn't be looking to make a profit or even considering reaching break evens. We don't look at the military and consider profits there yet we dish out billions of dollars of taxpayer money,
Omg. Maybe: COACH SEATS for Everyone?
Bussy is nice, but it'd be infinitely better on rails connected to power lines not surrounded by Personal Vehicles.
Did I miss it or did you not at all mention "stop at demand" for fixing the problem with too many too close to each other bus stops? I have never in my life seen a bus that does not have "stop at the next station" buttons. And for getting _on_ the bus: the bus driver just looks ahead if they see passengers there.
Great video! You have lots of smart insights. Here in LA, where I live, my prescription is: make all transit free so that people are more inclined to use it (also improves speed and efficiency of getting on the bus/train, as you note), plus institute a walker's bill of rights (lights change immediately when you press the "give me the walk signal button", cars MUST stop fully at stop signs -- police need to enforce this -- and cannot have dark tinted windows -- also a police enforcement issue, this is necessary so that pedestrians can make eye contact with drivers to make sure drivers are not looking at their phones). LA is helped by being mostly flat and having great weather most of the year. The big problem is the homeless population. The subway, nice as it is, has become a default homeless shelter, and as a result no one wants to use the transit system. That is a problem I have no idea how to fix.
Full bus rapid transit just ends up the same price as light rail
In capital costs? No.
In operating costs? Yes.
The right choice depends on a city's financial health and current needs. Also this depends on where the BRT/LRT is implemented. In areas where labor is cheaper, BRT becomes a no-brainer, as is the case in Bogotá (which is building LRT 25 years after BRT).
So it’s better then. If you want trains do it right and build proper metro rail like DC metro ,light rail is a cop out watered down version aka LRT creep.
Buses are available in most cities. Travellers are free to choose the bus or their car. Obviously most people do not want to use buses for many reasons. Does this speaker understand that every country on earth has an enormous number of cars? Perhaps the focus should be on better automotive systems.
"Bostonites" lmao 😂
You can use Bostonians next time :)
Singapore is an good brt bus 🚍 and
AJ, may I suggest you stop preaching to the converted? Right of centre people would be swayed by the fact car centric design makes their taxes much higher and makes cities broke; and means more traffic for them. Not climate change so much.
Public transit should either be free, like no tickets or abolished. It's a huge burden for taxpayers. And then they have the audacity to demand special lanes and whatnot. Either make them free for all or ban them.