Philadelphia Bus Network Choices Report JUNE 2018 SEPTA Table of Contents Executive Summary ..............................................................................................7 Far Northeast Philadelphia .........................................................................................................................................26 What if transit gave us more freedom? ........................................................................................................ 8 What are the recent trends? ....................................................................................................................... 27 What is this report? ....................................................................................................................................... 8 The main conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 9 2 What is happening to ridership? ................................................................................................................... 9 Is Transit Useful? Key Indicators .........................................................................30 What are other cities doing? ....................................................................................................................... 10 Ridership Arises from Usefulness ............................................................................................................... 31 The key to freedom: frequency and connections ....................................................................................... 10 Frequency Comes First ............................................................................................................................... 32 About 10% of service is duplicative ............................................................................................................ 10 Span: Is transit there when you need it? ..................................................................................................... 34 Some routes have too much peak-hour service ......................................................................................... 11 Frequent Service Standards ........................................................................................................................................36 Speed needs improvement ........................................................................................................................ 11 Connections .............................................................................................................................................................. .38 Reliability needs improvement, but is better than it sounds ..................................................................... 11 Buses are Getting Slower .......................................................................................................................................... .38 Transit has competing goals: How will they be balanced? ......................................................................... 12 On-Time Performance Is Poor .....................................................................................................................................39 The existing balance of goals .................................................................................................................................... .13 Better Measures of Reliability .....................................................................................................................................40 Evening and weekend service .................................................................................................................... 13 Probability of Waiting at SEPTA ..................................................................................................................................41 Eliminate the Fare Penalty for Changing Buses ......................................................................................... 14 All door boarding ........................................................................................................................................ 42 City leadership is critical ............................................................................................................................. 14 Try All-Door Boarding ................................................................................................................................. 14 3 The network can be more legible ............................................................................................................... 15 Improving Speed and Reliability: The Role of City Leadership ...........................43 Girard trolley is a barrier to travel ............................................................................................................... 15 Some Problems are Outside SEPTA’s Control ............................................................................................ 44 Summary of network design strategies ...................................................................................................... 16 Prioritizing Center City Streets ....................................................................................................................................45 What should happen next? ......................................................................................................................... 17 Curb Management ......................................................................................................................................................46 Outline of this report .................................................................................................................................. 17 Leadership in Other Cities .......................................................................................................................... 47 Seattle .........................................................................................................................................................................47 1 New York City .............................................................................................................................................................47 Introduction ........................................................................................................18 San Francisco ..............................................................................................................................................................48 What is a “Choices Report”? ...................................................................................................................... 19 Baltimore.....................................................................................................................................................................49 Why focus on buses? ................................................................................................................................... 19 Philadelphia Experience ............................................................................................................................. 50 Limitations in Space ................................................................................................................................................... .19 Introducing the Network ............................................................................................................................ 20 4 Center City, University City, and South Philadelphia ..................................................................................................21 Market Assessment ............................................................................................51 Center City, West, and North Philadelphia ............................................................................................................... .22 Development Patterns Matter .................................................................................................................... 52 Southwest Philadelphia...............................................................................................................................................23 Residents ..................................................................................................................................................... 54 Northwest and Upper North Philadelphia ..................................................................................................................24 Jobs ............................................................................................................................................................. 55 North and Lower Northeast Philadelphia ...................................................................................................................25 Activity ........................................................................................................................................................ 56 JARRETT WALKER + ASSOCIATES Table of Contents Linearity ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 Peak Service ................................................................................................................................................ 89 The Pattern