Easing Switch to Carpools and Transit
Transportation planners and transit advocates talk about several impediments facing people who want to make the switch from driving alone to transit or carpooling. Among them:
Inertia. Even many people with long drives that keep them from family time, or even seeing their homes in daylight, fall into patterns that are hard to break. Doing something different requires some planning, and people who endure long drives and get limited sleep are often just too tired to change habits.
The unknown. Stepping into a carpool or boarding a bus means learning a lot of new stuff. Carpoolers have their own etiquette. Bus riders know the fare, how to pay it, where to sit, where the route will take them and how to request a stop.
Good example of problem-solving: Arlington County developed an innovative program to encourage young people to ride transit. The idea was to get teenagers used to riding the bus, forming a habit they'd keep into adulthood.
One of the innovations was that the planners decided to ask high school students what was keeping them off the buses and how to fix it. Turned out that the barriers for the students were much the same as those for adults. Does the bus I want really stop at this signpost? Am I going to have to keep everyone else waiting at the farebox while I fumble for exact change? How do I know when I'm approaching my stop?
The Arlington transportation planners came up with the iRide program, which is aimed at young people, but I think would help anybody trying to make the switch to transit and offers a great model for other planners. The key is, it's really, really simple and they explain everything.
If you were on a committee trying to help people get out of their cars in response to gas prices, what would you want to know about carpooling or transit? What would you have the transit planners do to make their services more attractive and inviting?
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May 27, 2008; 12:14 PM ET
transit
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Posted by: ugh | May 27, 2008 1:20 PM
Since so many people in Montgomery County work in the Dulles Tech Corridor, can they build a large parking lot near the Hughes Rd/River Rd intersection in Montgomery County, run a passenger ferry across the river, and run shuttles between the ferry landing and Dulles Airport/AOL/Verizon?
Posted by: Dulles | May 27, 2008 1:46 PM
I think slugging as it has worked on the Shirley Highway corridor is somewhat unique and unlikely to work as well elsewhere. The reason is that the express lanes there are HOV-3. Elsewhere in the DC area (I-66, Dulles Toll Road, US-1 through Old Town, US-50 and I-270 in Maryland) they're all HOV-2. I can certainly understand the average slug being more willing to get into a strange car when there is a second passenger, as opposed to a strange car with just the driver.
The problem with conventional carpooling (where you have the same people each day) is that it requires both having people with the same schedule and having a reliable work schedule. If one member has a crapshoot of departure times in the evening, forget it. Slugging is a different story. I've picked up slugs in the afternoon a few times over the years when I needed to be home early and the system worked quite well. But I understand why VDOT and MDOT can't officially promote this system. I'm not sure how to suggest that the word get out, other than the media referring to http://www.slug-lines.com (which is where I went when I wanted to find out what to do with respect to picking up riders).
Posted by: Rich | May 27, 2008 1:59 PM
The Los Angeles MTA has a "Twelve-Minute Map" of buses that run at least that often, which I think makes life easier, since it's as frequent as an off-peak metrorail line. Under 12 minutes, you don't need to coordinate a schedule, memorize a timetable - just wait for the next one to come. 30 minutes is okay if the line agrees with both your Point A and Point B. Anything over that (as MoCo realized awhile back), and you may as well not run at all.
I will say that to their credit, the vast majority of bus operators in the region are helpful and friendly, much more so than their Metrorail counterparts. This no doubt helps those who are making the switch.
Posted by: Joe in SS | May 27, 2008 4:40 PM
Are there any plans to provide reverse train service from DC/MD to Frederick? or do the trains just sit idle at Union Station all day?
Providing this service would help some reverse commuters, and get people to start thinking about things as the Europeans do. Make mass transit accessible to everyone, and people will take it.
Posted by: reverse commuters | May 27, 2008 11:11 PM
I travel to any one of 6 different offices in a given week, sometimes more than one a day. I like the idea of carpooling, but I'm not sure that would work for me. Public transportation might work, but out here in the suburbs the buses aren't so thick on the ground.
Posted by: Corey | May 28, 2008 3:02 PM
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people who endure long drives and get limited sleep are often just too tired to drive!!!