Public Transportation in the U.S.

[Pensyfan19]

I found this video from Vox recently (and is even trending on YouTube) comparing the public transportation systems of the U.S. to Canada and how it can improve. What I found interesting is that they placed an emphasis on having frequent public transportation (including buses) travel between suburb to suburb instead of the existing pattern of downtown hub to suburbs. It also goes over familiar funding battles where the Democrats want more urban development, transit-oriented hubs while Republicans want to build more highways. The discussion floor is open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZDZtBRTyeI

[electricron]

Why are you so surprised that suburbanites want different transit options than urbanites?
I am not.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. Pennsy, I'm sorry to report that the demographics of a PACE (Chicago suburban bus system) rider and that of a METRA are "night and day" from one another. That within the CTA on 157 Route (meanders between the Loop, Streeterville, River North and Lincoln Park) is "a mite bit" different that that of the 54 Route (straight up and down Cicero Ave).

Funny how PACE has determined that 24 passenger vehicles meet their present or anticipated demand. They're there "for the help".

[GWoodle]

This video forgets the ability to transfer from a CTA bus to a Pace bus. Every CTA rider knows for a quarter you can transfer from an east-west route to something north-south. Some Pace routes serve as feeders into a CTA rapid transit stop. With the transfer you get 2 hours or must use the most direct route from A to B. These days most paper transfers have been replaced by a stored value transit card.

These days AFAIK most systems have an app for your phone so that you know when the next bus is expected. On the computer it will show where the next bus is. The bus may be a little late due to heavy boarding, weather, etc.

[STrRedWolf]

This video forgets the ability to transfer from a CTA bus to a Pace bus. Every CTA rider knows for a quarter you can transfer from an east-west route to something north-south. Some Pace routes serve as feeders into a CTA rapid transit stop. With the transfer you get 2 hours or must use the most direct route from A to B. These days most paper transfers have been replaced by a stored value transit card.

These days AFAIK most systems have an app for your phone so that you know when the next bus is expected. On the computer it will show where the next bus is. The bus may be a little late due to heavy boarding, weather, etc.

Most systems are working with Transit, feeding into a central repository and also getting feedback back. Transit does a bit of gamification by allowing users to jump on a bus and provide better tracking for it.

[Albany Rider]

As one who has lived in two cities & now am a suburb dweller, I share the view that city dwellers & suburban residents have different needs and like multi-modal system. I find it interesting that the American Pubic Transit Association reported late last week the of the 16 transit ballot propositions facing voters across the country last week, 13 passed -- even those increasing local taxes. I will take that as a good sign that US transportation will improve in the future.

[BandA]

...These days most paper transfers have been replaced by a stored value transit card.

These days AFAIK most systems have an app for your phone so that you know when the next bus is expected. On the computer it will show where the next bus is. The bus may be a little late due to heavy boarding, weather, etc.

Most systems are working with Transit, feeding into a central repository and also getting feedback back. Transit does a bit of gamification by allowing users to jump on a bus and provide better tracking for it.

noun: gamification

the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service. "gamification is exciting because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun"

Definitions from Oxford Languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements.

[urr304]

Too much emphasis is placed on suburb to center city terminal, not that it may be needed, but it is just a part of the traffic flow. Fortunately, in recent decades the transit authorities recognized some 'reverse' commuting that is traffic oriinating in city centers to suburb work. Still not much in way of suburb to suburb routing either from one side of an urban area to opposite side, or along the arcs that have formed along the ring roads we have built.

Ring roads have been around a while. In Pittsburgh, ring routes were marked by Allegheny County using existing roads [a lot of 2 lanes] by 1952, to avoid going through downtown to get from one suburb to another.

I was in Chicago area in 1994 at a rubber convention downtown, I proceeded out to Wheeling where our parent firm was using Northwestern {Metra] to Palatine and PACE to Wheeling. PACE did not particularly impress me I am sorry. I got a ride to the Northwestern station at Arlington Hts to return downtown. In other trips to the parent firm, I would fly into O'Hare on the first plane from Cleveland, get a rental, and drove up Des Plaines Road and did about as good time as they did on the jammed freeways.

IIRC, they were looking at a ring routing for Metra, but that must have been passed over. I do not recall what happened.

Here in Northeast Ohio, someone once in a while tries to get people interested in a commuter train to downtown Cleveland, but that is not where a majority of traffic going to. It is going across Cleveland or around the 271-480 beltway. Laketran [Lake County] runs some park n'ride to downtown during rush hours M-F with some transfers to Greater Cleveland RTA.

[ExCon90]

As I recall, the ring route around Chicago was to be based on the EJ&E but was deep-sixed when CN acquired the J. A plan in Philadelphia to use the ex-PRR Trenton Branch (perhaps better known as the Trenton Cutoff) had -- and still has -- signifiant last-mile and transfer/interchange problems at just about every possible intermediate stop; I think that's going to be a problem everywhere if an existing right-of-way is involved.

[eolesen]

Actually the Star Line for Metra was planning to coexist on the I-90 median and the EJ&E ROW, versus operating on the J. It officially died as a project in 2012, about four years after CN bought the J.

The median on the tollway has since been used for widening, and the CN may double track the J using up the space Star could have used.

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