Is Transit Useful? Key Indicators
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2 Is Transit Useful? Key Indicators JARRETT WALKER + ASSOCIATES SEPTA Philadelphia Bus Network Choices Report | 30 Ridership Arises from Usefulness To maximize liberty and oppor- mo reland Ridership is an important goal for many reasons other than fare tunity for the greatest number of From 4th St and Oregon Ave, easton n to e l t s ÀiÛiÕi°Ìi>ÃÕÀià Ü>Þ«i«iLiiwÌvÀÌ iÃiÀÛVi]>` b u e b people, a network of routes must where could It travel to on weekdays at 12 pm? h l e l h i philmont how effective it is at providing alternatives to the private car and other m e pe nn byberry m sy e lv k optimize: i a n l i n a old york w iÃÃë>ViivwViÌ`ið e lsh red lion n o d chu g 1. Frequency, n i roosevelt Public transit ridership arises mostly from service that is useful to as rch t n rd u h many people as possible, for as many trips as possible. There are some haldeman woodhaven ll i easton 2. Span, m r e od p wo }iiÌÀVv>VÌÃ>LÕÌ ÜiÌÜÀÃ`Ì Ã]Ü V Ì ÃV >«ÌiÀLÀiyÞ a n p e grant re ton ee g g welsh in verr h y germantown ge s township line reviews. 3. Connections, rm a m w e an d to stenton a wn c a d t r l o e f v grant e x s A helpful way to illustrate the usefulness of public transport is to visual- o o 4. Speed, knights rhawn o ridge r s te rd ize where a person could get to using public transit and walking from a nt cheltenham on o ho frankfo s mount airy g lme n o e n 5. Reliability, and t ll a z given location. Figure 28 shows an isochrone map of the access avail- castor nt mo levick able from 4th Street and Oregon Avenue at noon on a weekday. From aw godfrey h henry 6. Capacity, s n su e u tat the selected point, the map shows where someone could be, on public m ng s i a b is bustleton r r d ia a washington m and follow favorable patterns in road s transit combined with walking, in 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. b een ridge gr wayne n o s i b the built environment. r a h r A more useful service is one in which these isochrone areas are larger, b o d t r s r i a d c g rid hunting park e tacony ÃÌ >Ìi>V «iÀÃÃiÞÌw`Ì iÃiÀÛViÕÃivÕvÀÀiÌÀ«Ã°7i belmont ge frankfo montgomery roosevelt erie can quantify this by counting how many destinations—jobs, shopping, KEY INDICATORS IS TRANSIT USEFUL? hunting park The rest of this chapter and Chapter 3 will focus go sedgley in am etc.—are inside these areas, and how those numbers grow or shrink ar Ì iÃÝiiiÌÃ`iÌwi`>LÛi° >«ÌiÀ city e lehigh allegheny iv r depending on the network design. d lly e 4 will focus on the patterns of development lancaster k richmond d Even beyond usefulness, an isochrone shows the level of personal in Philadelphia. Together, network design and 33r 52nd broad development patterns will illuminate the geo- haverfo girard freedom and opportunity afforded by the public transport network. If rd girard iÌÀVv>VÌÃÌ >Ì`iwiÌ i«ÃÃLÌiÃvÀÌ i someone at 4th Street and Oregon Avenue chooses to rely on transit, spring ga rden Philadelphia transit network. powelton vine they will be constrained by where transit can readily take them, and chestnut th spruce ll 16 marsha market will experience the blobs in this map as walls around where they can re baltimo lombard go and what they can do. For someone to choose to rely on transit, lombard c whitby h r 34th i s ore t altim o and especially for them to decide to not own a car or to share a car, b p h e r c these blobs have to contain enough of the places that make people’s rgh o Areas that can be lu m s main pr macdade indbe b ing land l u lives complete like education, shopping, services, social opportunities fie yunk s accessed within: ld pass wood island oregon and jobs. 26th 15 min h t 7 essington Expanding this freedom and opportunity is foundational for rider- broad rose 30 min pen à «}ÀÜÌ °7 iÌ iÀv>VÌÀÃ>Ã>vviVÌÀ`iÀà «]Ì Ãi>ÃÕÀiv 84th freedom and opportunity isolates the aspect of ridership that network 45 min `iÃ}V>yÕiVi°/ ÃV>VÕ>ÌV>Li>`iÜÌ ÕÌÀiVÕÀÃi bartram to assumptions about human culture or behavior, whose effects are not 60 min predictable. Data source: SEPTA GTFS Spring 0 1 2 3 4 miles 2017 How can we help more people get to more places sooner, so that they V>`ÀiÌ }ö Figure 28: Map of travel time isochrones for walking and transit from 4th St and Oregon Avenue. JARRETT WALKER + ASSOCIATES SEPTA Philadelphia Bus Network Choices Report | 31 Despite smartphones, realtime information and other new technolo- Ü vÀiµÕiVÞ ÀÕÌiÃ] i ,ÕÌià £] Èn >` ÇÇ] Ìi` Ì >Ûi Ì i Frequency Comes First gies, frequency still matters enormously because: lowest productivity. Route 27, despite being a 30-minute frequency route, has the lowest productivity at 17.6 boardings per service hour Riders respond to many features of a service, including speed and reli- • 7>Ì} `iÃ Ì ÕÃÌ >««i >Ì Ì i ÃÌ>ÀÌ v ÞÕÀ À`i] Ì >à on weekdays. ability, but the dominant factor is frequency. Frequency is the elapsed >««iÃ>ÌÌ ii`°9Õ>ÞÌii`Ìi>ÛiÌ i ÕÃiÕV time between consecutive buses (or trains, or ferries) on a line, which before your departure, but if your bus is infrequent, you have to The relationship between route productivity and frequency and outlier determines someone’s maximum waiting time. choose between being very early or too late. cases will be further explored in Chapter 5. People who are accustomed to traveling by car often underestimate • Many of the places we go do not let us hang out until our bus’s the importance of frequency, because there is not an equivalent in >ÀÀÛ>ÃiÌ°7iV>i>ÃÞ`Ì ÃÜ ii>Û} i]LÕÌ driving. A car is ready to go when you are, but public transit is not it is more awkward when leaving a restaurant or a workplace that available until it comes. is closing. High frequency means public transit is coming soon, which means 7iV>ÃiiÌ iivviVÌvvÀiµÕiVÞÀ`- that it approximates the feeling of liberty you have with a private ership by looking at how existing services 46 vehicle—namely that you can go anytime. Frequency has three inde- perform. 11 «i`iÌLiiwÌÃvÀÌ i«>ÃÃi}iÀ\ Figure 29 shows a dot for each SEPTA bus 52 6 • Frequency reduces waiting, which is everyone’s least favorite and trolley route within Philadelphia, with 34 3 part of a trip. The basic sensation of being able to go when you the horizontal axis indicating frequency 36 75 want to go is the essence of frequency. and the vertical axis indicating productivity, 60 60 56 15 8 which is ridership divided by the quantity XH • Frequency makes connections easy, which makes it possible for 66 47 54 of service provided. High frequency means 70 KEY INDICATORS IS TRANSIT USEFUL? a cluster of transit lines to become a network. A transit line without 33 17 18 64 a short elapsed time between consecutive 16 good connections is useful for travelling only along that line. A trips, so it is to the left on these diagrams. 21 26 K H 31 network of frequent lines can make it easy to travel all over the Service quantity is measured in hours, where 23 48 29 city. This massively expands the usefulness of each line. 4 a service hour represents one bus on the 57 R road for one hour. 7 • Frequency is a backup for problems of reliability. If a vehicle 42 G L 65 breaks down or is late, frequency means another will be along 40 39 25 The highest frequency routes, like Routes 11, 45 22 43 soon. 79 30 52, and 23, tend to be the most productive. 2 53 58 20 61 Route 11 is the highest productivity route of 5 J Many people assume that today, with real-time transit arrival informa- 32 73 all with 73.6 boardings per service hour on 14 44 84 67 tion and smartphones, nobody needs to wait for a bus anymore, and 40 12 weekdays. 55 24 28 19 1 frequency therefore does not matter. If a bus only comes every 30 38 37 ÕÌiÃ]Ì >ÌÃwi]LiV>ÕÃiÞÕÀ« iÜÌiÞÕÜ iÌÃ>viÜ 15B 50 Productivity (Boardings per Revenue Hour) 47M 68 minutes away and you should start walking. 89 77 10 9 88 20 27 35 51015 20 30 45 60 Midday Frequency (minutes) Figure 29: Frequency and productivity relate for SEPTA bus routes in Philadelphia. JARRETT WALKER + ASSOCIATES SEPTA Philadelphia Bus Network Choices Report | 32 Figure 30 shows a the similar relationship between productivity and Productivity and Frequency Relate vÀiµÕiVÞ vÀ Õ`Ài`à v ÀÕÌià ÓÎ ÀÌ ƂiÀV> VÌià «Õà Data from 23 cities Philadelphia routes (shown with green dots). The individual points for the other 23 cities are grouped into hexagonal bins, to prevent them 80 obscuring one another; darker-colored hexagons contain more routes In Philadelphia and beyond, higher frequency is generally associ- ated with higher productivity.