Ramp metering could make transit priority on city streets easier

Ramp metering (wiki) seems to be a common practice at freeway entrances in Wisconsin. The concept is simple: by allowing vehicles onto the highway in small numbers, you can reduce traffic up ahead as well as improve safety by reducing the friction caused by merging traffic. In the event of an emergency, holding traffic back away from the scene reduces the number of interfering cars that first responders have to deal with.

Street metering could be very useful in cities with limited space. Since traffic engineers primarily concern themselves with traffic flow, one thing they focus on is storage: space for vehicles to wait during a red signal phase or for turns. If you metered the traffic coming into a busy area, you wouldn't need as much storage in areas without excess room.Those of us who always hear the tired lie that "there's no room" for bike or transit priority -- there is always room unless you give car priority -- might think about how metering could reduce the storage engineers say they "need" in specific locations. So you can have your protected bike lane in the narrow road section as long as not as many cars are allowed to queue there.

As a transit priority measure, metering could be used in advance of a bottleneck such as a bridge or business district, allowing buses to pass stopped cars in a bus lane or shoulder and move in front where the street is clear. Think of it as a queue jump where traffic is held for a minute or two whenever the bus is detected as approaching. A meter could also be used at an intersection with a transit corridor so that buses and streetcars don't deal with as much traffic.

Do you know any current examples of metering on city streets?

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

It's been an interesting week here in Milwaukee. The empty streets reflected the bitter cold earlier this week but by now more people are out and the weather is showing signs of spring. Still, it feels like a small city and is much less dense than than I expected a city of 600,000 people to be. When everyone came out of hiding from the cold I could tell that most people drive private cars -- in fact, census data shows that only 4 percent of commute trips are made by transit, and less than 1 percent by bike -- yet I found it easy to get around without a car.

Bikes

The city owes a lot of its success to the many breweries, and that's reflected in the thriving bike culture, with a wide variety of simple, utilitarian bicycles.  Bike lanes exist on many streets but Milwaukee would be so much better to bike in if the pavement condition were improved. Many streets are surfaced with concrete, which holds up well to stress from heavy vehicles but fails miserably with the freeze-thaw cycles.

While there are several pleasant and useful bike paths, winter maintenance continues to be a problem, with many trails at least partly covered with snow and ice. It is possible to ride most of the Oak Leaf Trail along Lake Michigan and north or south from downtown (minus the ice rinks), the Hank Aaron State Trail west (continuing some 80 miles to Madison once snow melts), and the scenic and flat Riverwalk along the Milwaukee River.  Lakeshore State Park is the only state park in a Wisconsin city; it's a nice place to relax even if it is separated from the city (as in most cities) by an underused highway.

The many bridges offer great views of the Milwaukee River valley, and the Riverwalk abuts many new apartment buildings.  Not to be missed is the Marsupial Bridge, constructed in 2006 directly under the deck of an existing bridge, exclusively for pedestrians, bikes and other non-motorized vehicles. Aside from the pleasant ride, it's footprint is a reminder of how space-efficient bikes is compared to the cars above.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the Wisconsin Bike Federation staff as well as the director of the Vulture Space community bike shop; you can listen to those on separate podcast episodes this week.

Local Transit

Bus service in Milwaukee is provided by the Milwaukee County Transit System. Most lines run along Wisconsin Avenue through the downtown area (known as Westown and Easttown on either side of the river). That's the main street and although it's overly wide and not really pedestrian friendly, it is nice to be able to board any bus within a few minutes at most times for a short ride east or west. Many bus routes go all the way east (across a highway from the lake) and terminate at the Downtown Transit Center, so isolated and depressing that passengers just transfer along Wisconsin Avenue. The county is trying to sell it to a developer, and if successful it should use the proceeds to remove a lot of the excess road space and create linear parks with street furniture and amenities.

In recent years MCTS upgraded three routes to crosstown limited-stop services (Red, Green & Blue Lines) which have no traffic priority measures but seem to be well used.  They recently released an excellent mobile web site.  But their best feature: after paying the fare you may request a free transfer which can be used as many times as you wish, even on the same route, for up to one hour. I've been a big proponent of this kind of policy since I first saw it in San Francisco as it allows people to use transit however it works best for them -- need to make a quick stop? forgot something? change of plans? maybe your child needs a bathroom break? -- but here it has become a political issue. A proposal to eliminate free transfers to combat perceived fare evasion (passengers selling transfers, though probably not as often as perceived) was recently rejected by the county as MCTS plans to implement an automated fare collection system using contactless smart cards later this year.

Like other county services, MCTS has been subjected to large service cuts and fare increases in recent years as the car-obsessed Republican Scott Walker -- who says we can't afford transit but always finds new money for highways -- was the County Executive here before becoming the Governor of Wisconsin.

The light traffic on city streets means that buses run well since there's not much to delay them, but also that ridership is relatively low because there is no real incentive to take the bus instead of driving. This is also evident in the very light foot traffic on most streets. The downtown is full of car parking garages and the east-west freeway cuts off the downtown just a few blocks south of Wisconsin Avenue.

Intercity & Regional Transit

Southeastern Wisconsin has a patchwork of transit services which connect in a somewhat complicated way.  The cities - Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha - each operate their own transit systems. MCTS Route 10 connects to Waukesha Metro Route 1 at a shopping mall in the midway town of Brookfield. The other links are provided by the subsidized Wisconsin Coach route from Milwaukee to Racine and Kenosha, for which a maximum fare is $4.50 is charged. You can transfer at Kenosha for one of a handful of daily Metra trains south to Chicago.

The new Milwaukee Intermodal Station provides access to Amtrak trains to Chicago, including the daily Empire Builder train to Minneapolis and all the way to the west coast, as well as intercity buses in all directions. Like many such facilities, it is close to downtown but not right there.

On Monday I will take the Badger Bus - the only regular scheduled intercity bus that doesn't stop at the Intermodal Station - to Madison for a few days before taking another bus to La Crosse, where I'll start riding along the Mississippi River toward Minneapolis.

Episode 26: Streetsblog Chicago

My last show from Chicago features sustainable transportation advocates, and Streetsblog Chicago editors Steven Vance & John Greenfield.  Streetsblog is a daily news source covering public transit, bicycling, walking and the growing movement for safe, equitable, livable streets.  Their original site remains at Grid Chicago and their individual blogs are Steven Can Plan and Vote With Your Feet. Links to Chicago DOT, Active Transportation Alliance, the Ventra fare card (Chicago Transit Authority), Chicago Cargo (bike swap photos). I am now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after completing a multimodal trip by train, bike and bus, which I discuss later in the show.  The coldest days seem to be behind us but it still won't feel like spring in this region for another two weeks.  From here I will spend a few days in Madison and continue northwest making my way up to Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota.

If you find yourself along my route please contact me to share information, suggest places to go or people to talk to, and hopefully meet to discuss transit and bikes.  And if you appreciate the show please consider donating to help support my Sustainable Transport Tour and this reporting. You can also support this work by sharing it with your friends and colleagues, following me on Facebook and Twitter, and leaving a review on iTunes or another blog/podcast service.

P.S.  I have been working on the site to fix some issues and make it load faster.  Please contact me if you have suggestions for improvements, if you experience difficulty accessing the site, or if your comments don't appear after you post them (sometimes real comments get stuck in the spam folder).

Day 1: Chicago to Milwaukee

Yesterday I left Chicago on a multimodal trip that would take me to Milwaukee. It's actually possible to make the whole trip on local transit without a bike, but only a few trains on the Metra North Line actually extend the entire way to Kenosha, Wisconsin, the southern terminus of the regional bus to Milwaukee.  The train I took ended in Waukegan, Illinois, about 17 miles south of Kenosha. While there is a bike path from Waukegan (actually almost all the way from Evanston & Chicago) into the edge of Kenosha, it seemed to be treated as recreation instead of transportation, just as in many other places. Without a serious mountain bike I can handle packed snow but not the ice underneath.

I would often travel a few miles and try to find a better route, riding some distance before winding up in a residential subdivision with no way out -- things I tend to forget even exist -- and back on a four-lane suburban arterial highway.  Finally I went west to find a two-lane rural road with moderate traffic and at least a half-decent shoulder to ride on. Sadly there was no sign welcoming me to Wisconsin, but some highway route signs and finally a Kenosha Transit bus stop sign informed me I had entered the city of Kenosha. The ride from there was less than pleasant as all of the streets were paved with deteriorated concrete. I don't know why a northern city with freeze-thaw cycles would choose concrete over asphalt.

Shortly after 6pm, after logging over 30 miles on what should have been a 15-mile trip, I reached the Kenosha Transit Station. The beautiful building was closed which was closed but there was still one more scheduled local bus departure at 7. This is a pulse point, where all buses arrive and depart together to facilitate easy, reliable connections; buses will wait a few minutes if another bus is late. There is also a historic streetcar line which stops in front of the transit center and does a short on-street loop for tourists during limited hours.  Maybe I'll come back in a few days.

I removed my gear, folded my bike and boarded the Wisconsin Coach bus to Milwaukee, for only $4.50 with a tour of Racine included. Although it was a coach bus, it made local stops in the cities and along the highway in between. A detour to the University of Wisconsin at Parkside (between Kenosha & Racine) yielded no passengers. In under two hours we arrived at the very sterile, airport-style Milwaukee Intermodal Station, which serves Amtrak trains heading northwest west from Chicago as well as express buses from Chicago, Minnesota, Michigan and other cities in Wisconsin. Most local transit systems in Wisconsin are very small but the intercity bus network connects the cities well and is likely subsidized by the state. (The map really helps with trip planning.)

I am staying in Milwaukee for about a week as I learn about the city and it's transportation and culture. I look forward to interviewing the great people of Bike Fed Wisconsin very soon.

Highway Transit

As cities look to expand transit, it's common to use an existing transportation corridor on which extra ground level space is available. Many cities have built rapid transit and regional rail and bus lines in the median of a highway, and many others continue to do so because it's cheap and has only minimal impacts. Aside from the cost, freeway corridors can be great places for long-distance express buses or trains with either no stops or just a few park-and-ride stations.  However, it's not a good place for any other transit service. My experience on Chicago's Blue Line provides a clear case against locating transit stations along a highway.

Just the presence of the highway ensures that walkable neighborhoods will not develop, and any nearby businesses will be hostile to pedestrians. The location of the station means that a long, unpleasant walk is required from the train to anything else. And since the highway divides communities, the lack of street life makes it not only uncomfortable but also potentially unsafe.

 

Once you reach the platform, you're still exposed to high health risks from auto emissions, not to mention the discomfort caused by noise and the nauseating feeling of traffic whizzing by within a few meters of where you're standing. Not a nice place to be waiting, and certainly not a good way to attract riders and promote public transit.

There is often a tendency to be lazy and build a transit line along a highway simple because there is room and it's relatively cheap and easy to do. Yet before we take that plunge, let's think hard about what kind of ridership you expect to be serving, as highways and rapid transit lines promote very different kinds of land use.

Rapid transit stations have the potential to attract dense, pedestrian friendly mixed-use development that people will walk to and spend time hanging around.  But highways are usually more powerful in dividing communities and creating hostile walking environments. Next to most highways you typically warehouses, auto repair shops, parking lots and other things that don't create much street life.

While highway transit may be better than nothing at all, I think it's well worth the extra cost and construction impacts to locate rapid transit lines and stations either in existing dense areas in need to better transit or in places with the potential to become walkable, thriving neighborhoods.

Fortunately, CTA seems to recognize this as they have decided that the planned extension of the Red Line's southern portion (also in an expressway median) will move away from the highway.

Episode 24: bike emissions, road costs, segregation and stupid lawmakers

This might be called the idiot episode as take a few state legislators to task for being arrogant idiots: the Florida State Senator who wants buses out of his way at all costs, and the Washington State Representative who believes bicyclists' "increased respiration" causes emissions -- too bad they still have trees in Washington! (thanks Erik).  It should help if I debunk the myth that drivers pay for our roads. Contrary to popular belief, most street funding comes from general revenue sources that everyone pays into. Unfortunately the myth in convenient for drivers who continue to demand more space/resources and push others off the streets. We're always told we have no money for transit and livable streets but the reality is we spend too much money for a broken transportation system that is inefficient and unsafe. Plus, we spend much of our money in the wrong places, like highways, big banks, endless oil wars, propping up foreign dictators, ... We have to change our ways before we completely destroy the planet and everyone on it.  Rather than misguided, childish sequester (austerity) measures, we should be employing people in good jobs to rebuild the infrastructure that works and expand our transit, bike and pedestrian networks to serve everyone who needs to travel.

Minku from the Vegan Pedicab Podcast is back to add his thoughts and discuss an effort in Chicago to raise awareness about dooring. Local lawyer Jim Freeman calls auto safety standards to apply to people outside the vehicle, arguing that dooring could be eliminated by design.

The helmet of justice debuts to create a "black box" inside a bike/skate helmet. It's a shame we live in a society where we need video evidence because the police and courts automatically believe the car driver.

Israel steps back a few decades and introduces segregated buses in the West Bank. How will they enforce that? And haven't Palestinians been through enough hardship?

Atlanta legislators haven't learned the lessons of privatization (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) as they push to privatize parts of MARTA. Georgians for Better Transit organizes to fight back.

Nevada pretends to deal with unsafe streets by banning texting while walking ... or as it's better known, victim blaming.

Residential and commercial parking has many consequences -- listen to episode 14 for my interview with Rachel Weinberger -- including encouraging unnecessary car trips and leaving less space for useful activities such as housing. Parking makes cities more hostile to walking and biking and more difficult to serve with good transit. Cities should stop requiring developers to build car parking. We discuss one developer's legal battle to build 40 housing units without parking in a transit rich Boston neighborhood where half of households are car-free.

Let's stop pouring money into endless highway expansion, endless oil wars and ... the big banks!  Occupy activist Jesse Myerson was interviewed on the Radio Dispatch to explaining the real reason New York's MTA is raising fares more than 10% every two years.

Thanks to the Progressive Podcast Australia for mentioning my work in their latest podcast on sustainable transportation, in which they discuss the links between transport and other political and cultural issues.

Bus priority: build it where we need it, on every route

It's a typical day in any business district. Lots of people are out shopping, eating and walking around. But getting there is made difficult as buses are delayed by all the cars that show up. If we really want to improve bus travel, we have to solve problems like this. Short of banning cars entirely (great!), charging significantly higher parking prices (perhaps the real cost of providing parking spaces) is a required first step to reduce the number of car trips. Then we can strategically remove parking spaces in certain spots to create "queue jump" lanes to allow buses to skip the line. Instead of putting all of our energy into nicely branded BRT lines -- typically only getting bus lanes where they aren't really needed -- we should fix problem spots like this one on every transit route.

Fare Recovery & User Fees: Transit is not a business

Most people don't realize that only a few mass transit systems in the world can pay themselves through user fees. The typical fare recovery ratio (the amount of operating costs paid by fares) is 20 to 40 percent, lower if you include capital costs such as new vehicle and infrastructure.

You might argue that we should just raise fares, but when you do that, some people can't afford the increase and others could afford it but choose another mode anyway to save money. That's not because infrastructure for driving is cheaper to provide; it's most certainly not. The operating cost recovery ratio for state-maintained highways is around 50-70 percent -- much less if you include expansion (capital) costs -- because politics has prevented states from charging direct user fees and kept the only indirect revenue source (gas taxes) artificially low.  That's actually quite poor considering that you're not paying drivers like transit agencies are. The cost recovery ratio for local streets is a big fat zero because those are funded entirely by local tax revenue that everyone pays.  [The myth that drivers pay their fair share is a big problem because many drivers resent non-drivers who they believe don't pay for the roads and thus don't deserve safe streets.]

If transit were really a business whose users paid all of the capital and operating costs (plus profit), the fare would be so high that the system would see few riders and have to abandon all but a few key corridors. Those remaining corridors might be profitable, but only for service at the busiest times at the busiest stops. Don't expect any evening service because you couldn't afford what it would cost you.

On the other hand, if we were to switch to a purely libertarian system* and charge everyone for exactly the costs they inflict on the system, transit would cost very little and have very high ridership -- which would mean perpetual expansion, the opposite of the death spiral of fare increases, service cuts and declining ridership that most cities are experiencing today. In such a system, most people would bike at least sometimes because dramatic growth in the number of bicyclists would be complemented by rapid growth in safe cycling facilities.

That may be an impossible task, but we could start by making drivers pay their fair share. Then transit would no longer be more expensive than driving on subsidized roads to a free or cheap parking space.

* Note: I am not a believer in American political style Libertarianism, which promotes the absence of government involvement and regulation and usually manifests itself in the defense of corporate power.  In reality, transportation is by definition a use of the commons because you cannot move about the public realm without a network of infrastructure on which to walk, wheel or operate a vehicle. That network is and clearly should be public. However, the different ways in which we each get around carry various tangible and intangible costs which we tend to ignore. Each one of us should think seriously about the impacts of our decisions on others. My experience with transportation demand management shows that the best way to promote behavioral changes beneficial to society (i.e. more efficient use of resources) would be to have everyone share the costs and benefits according to their own use.

Episode 23: Climate Rally & TransLink (Vancouver)

My first guest this week, Andrew Austin of Americans for Transit joins me to recap last weekend's Forward on Climate rally in Washington, DC.  Andrew explains how public transportation is a critical part of the solution to climate change and how we must move forward by expanding transit and making existing transit more sustainable. I am also joined by Jhenifer Pabillano and Robert Willis, authors of The Buzzer blog, the "accessible face" TransLink in Vancouver, BC. TransLink is a diverse and proactive regional transportation agency and is one of the few operators of automated rail lines. They also operate the busiest bus route in North America, as well as electric trolley buses, motor buses, commuter rail and the SeaBus ferry. Learn about the operational benefits of automated trains, efforts to upgrade the 99 B-Line bus to higher capacity rail (see also my earlier post), why they are installing fare gates on an existing train line, and what they have in store for the future.

Want to learn more about TransLink or advice on transit planning and operations? Check out TransLink 101 for a great compilation of informative posts, and read about managing the network to improve its performance.

Daniel writes in from San Antonio, Texas, with information on intercity shuttle bus service provided by Texas State University at San Marcos which makes it possible to travel between Austin and San Antonio. Unfortunately it will be discontinued this summer, so go ride it and report back on your experience.

Please support my work if you get something from it.  Follow the blog at CriticalTransit.com, on Facebook or Twitter, share it with your friends and colleagues, and contribute to my Sustainable Transport Tour if you are able to spare some funds or other useful things.

Guns & transit don't mix

The Illinois state legislature is debating a "concealed carry" bill that would allow people to carry guns in public. That's always good ... ignore all of the actual problems in this country -- over 15% of people unable to reliably afford food, housing and medical care; people being shot in schools and workplaces -- and claim that your childish desire is somehow an important matter on which to spend time and resources. I think I get it, your gun is a symbol of your manhood, and we can't deny you the "right" of expressing your manhood in public.  But tell me again how you're going to calmly use it in a moment of chaos -- perhaps aboard a crush loaded bus -- to solve any situation?  It's not happening. People still believe in the childhood fantasy that "a good guy with a gun" will solve all problems are smoking something which also should not be allowed on transit.  The problem with sanctioning violence as a society is that we can't guarantee the good guy will always win.

We already have enough tension in crowded spaces, and everyday stress can make people act irrationally -- some people are so stressed that a simple fare dispute can cause them to assault an operator. In Mexico City there are shootings in traffic jams. Do you really want a George Zimmerman carrying a gun to "defend" his manhood when a "suspicious" young black man bumps into him by accident?

It's not hypothetical. In Dallas, shootings on DART vehicles and facilities have been more common than in other places. After one such incident, a DART spokesperson had this to say:

“I don’t really know what can be done; you have a right to carry in the state of Texas,” spokesman Mark Ball told KTVT-TV (Channel 11). “If there is anything in the future that we can possibly do, we’ll do it.”

If it's not illegal to carry a gun, how can police stop people from using guns?

The NRA is just trying to sell more guns. Rather than taking any of their arguments seriously, we need to be proactive (find ways to prevent violence), not reactive (merely respond to violence with more violence). Maybe some of our previous attempts haven't worked, but means we should keep trying new methods. Unfortunately the arbitrary fixation on the misunderstood second amendment doesn't help.

Want to be prepared in case you or another passenger is assaulted? Carry a bottle of pepper spray.