Today... Air Quality Alert... Ride the Bus!

There has been a Code Orange air quality alert forecast today for northern Delaware, according to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

"A CODE ORANGE AIR QUALITY ALERT MEANS THAT AIR POLLUTION CONCENTRATIONS WITHIN THE REGION MAY BECOME UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS. SENSITIVE GROUPS INCLUDE CHILDREN...PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM ASTHMA... HEART DISEASE OR OTHER LUNG DISEASES...AND THE ELDERLY. THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION CAN BE MINIMIZED BY AVOIDING STRENUOUS ACTIVITY OR EXERCISE OUTDOORS."

This alert means everybody should, as much as possible, avoid using cars and other emission sources. Riding the bus to work... OK. Driving to the mall... not OK. Catching a train to Philly... OK. Mowing your lawn with a gasoline mower... not OK.

This forecast map is courtesy http://www.airnow.gov. According to information on this site, this level of air pollution is expected to cause health effects in members of sensitive groups. The general public is not likely to be affected. So if you have asthma or other breathing or health conditions, you might want to stay indoors today.f sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.

Route 6: Expect Evening, Early-Morning Delays on Kirkwood Highway

Watch out, Route 6 passengers. Tonight, July 6, will be the start of evening construction work along Kirkwood Highway in the Elsmere area. If you ride Route 6 in the evening, be prepared for delays, as there will be lane closures and shifts.

Projects like this usually also involve some intermittent lane closures. If construction cleanup is delayed, as in my experience it sometimes is, there could be some early-morning slowdowns, too. Remember, even if you are not riding through Elsmere, delays can affect the entire route. From The Delmarva Town Crier:

"The Department of Transportation (DelDOT) announces nighttime lane and shoulder closures on Kirkwood Highway between Route 7 to Prices Corner for a pavement and rehabilitation project. The project will begin on Wednesday, July 6 and end in mid-November. The work hours will be from 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. All work will occur at night to decrease impact on commuter traffic. The contractor may use Fridays as a make up day. 

The closures are needed for the removal of the old road surface, patching, and hot-mix overlay. Motorists are advised to use caution when traveling through the area and to expect lane shifts. A-Del Construction Company Inc., submitted a bid of $2,059,450 the lowest of seven bids received."

Don''t Pay Full Fare - Use a DART Card

I always buy DART cards to pay for my bus fare, because it is cheaper and less of a hassle. Personally, I get the Platinum card, for which I pay $65, but which gives me $108 worth of rides. That's the maximum discount - 40%. That is, unless you're 65 years old, in which case you can get the Red Card with a 70% discount.

So instead of $1.15 for a single fare, I'm really only paying $0.69. And instead of $2.40 for a daily pass, I really pay only $1.44. That's a great savings.

Now, I notice that very few people take advantage of this. Last year, I bought a Platinum DART Card at the ShopRite at the Riverfront, and the clerk told me with surprise, "That's the first Platinum card I've ever sold!"

That's good for DART revenues, I guess, but not so good for riders' wallets. In my opinion, people should really try to save up for the highest-value card they can afford, so they can get the maximum discount. You can see the prices and discounts in the list at the right.

I think there are several reasons people don't buy the maximum-discount cards:

1. They can't afford it. Some folks can barely scrape up the change for a single ride. And some not even that, as witness the panhandlers begging change for a ride at Rodney Square. Those who most need the discount - let's face it - can't afford it.
2. People are afraid of losing a high-value card. This is legitimate. If you're in the habit of losing your card, you should stick to the lower-value cards. I was afraid of this, but over several years have still not lost a card (but... knock on wood!)
3. They don't know where or how to buy DART cards. You can get them at the customer service counter of any ACME market, and quite a few other places, too. But some people don't have time, and others have to go way out of their way. Some don't even know how to find out where to get them (you can call DART, or find a list of card outlets on the internet.)
4. They've had problems with cards in the past. Admittedly, it is a huge hassle when your card stops working when there is still money on it. But the drivers will generally let you keep riding until you can take care of it. 

Another Thing on My DART Wish List

Wouldn't it be nice if DART would provide some kind of usabke online map showing bus stops and bus routes? Preferably an overlay for, say, Google Maps?

When I started using the bus for my transportation needs, one of the most difficult things was knowing where bus stops were located. I knew the stops close to my house, of course. But when I wanted to go shopping, or to a meeting, it was often challenging. I did not know for sure where the nearest route to my destination ran. And when I figured that out, I still didn't know where to get off.

Once there, it was often very difficult to figure out where to catch  a homebound bus. You'd think corresponding bus stops on either side of two-way roads would be across the street from one another. But that is often not the case. Sometimes they are blocks apart, and it can be hard to know in which direction to head to find the closest stop.

A good map overlay system would be such a blessing. One that could be pulled up on a cell phone with internet, just like Mapquest or Google Maps.

By the way... there is a .pdf file available on the DART website that contains a list of all DART's bus stops. It is definitely not cell phone friendly, though. And sometimes it is difficult to figure out the stop descriptions, because they refer to landmarks you won't know if you are not familiar with the area. I've used this list to try to figure out, in advance, where I can get off the bus when I'm going somewhere new, and also where to catch the bus when returning. But it has usually been a laborious process.

Determining just where bus routes run is even more of a problem. The NCCo Bus Route Map found (if you look reeeeeeally hard) on DART's website (see snip above), is a help. But it is hard to read... it really does not give the level of detailed information riders need. You can get a printed copy of this, but they are hard to come by... you have to call and request one or get one at a DART office. Most schedule outlets don't have them. Most people try to use the bus schedule maps, which are horrible. Not to scale, and they show only a few cross-streets. If you don't already know the area, forget trying to use one of these.

I Wish We Had Service on the Fourth

Dang, I wish DART had at least limited service on the Fourth of July. They do offer the beach bus service:

The DART Route 305, Beach Connection, begins service on Friday, May 27, 2011, providing bus service from Wilmington to Rehoboth Beach on Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays through September 5, 2011. Route 305 stops include Rodney Square, Wilmington Train Station, Christiana Mall, Smyrna Rest Stop, Scarborough Park & Ride lot in Dover, Super Wal-Mart in Milford, and the Rehoboth Park & Ride lot.

But what if you don't live within reasonable walking distance of Rodney Square or the train station? I guess you take a taxi ($$$), try to coerce a friend or family member into getting up early to drive you, or you're  just out of luck.

DART and the State of Delaware need to realize that if they want people to give up their cars and use public transportation, they will need to meet the Sunday and holiday travel needs of riders.

GPS... Yes, Even if You Don't Drive

I use my smartphone GPS all the time, and I don't even drive. In fact, I consider it one of the most essential services my phone offers. And I think its an important safety feature for those who use public transit. Here's how I use it:

• I use it to know where to get off the bus when I'm going somewhere new and where I'm not familiar with the bus stops. Before I leave I just key in my destination address on my phone's GPS-powered Google Maps application, which places a flag at that destination. Then I keep the app running so I can see where I am on the map as the bus travels. It's fun to watch the little blue triangle (my location) moving down the road on the map. When I see that I am close to my destination (flagged on the map), I pull the cord and signal the driver for a stop. 
• Once I'm off the bus and on foot, I continue to keep the application open and as I walk, it guides me to the exact address. No making wrong turns and then having to backtrack on a dead end street. 
• The street signage in Wilmington and much of New Castle County is often not very good. Sometimes I'm on foot and know I need to turn on, say, 9th Street... but when I get to an intersection there are no signs! My Google Maps app with GPS will tell me in a few seconds exactly where I am, on a street map that shows the names of the streets. No hiking down to the next corner to confirm whether I've made the correct turn (and hiking back if I haven't.)
• My vision is not good, and sometimes even when there is signage, I can't always be sure I'm reading it correctly. This is especially the case in low light situations. The phone is back-lit, so with GPS I can always know right where I am... no streetlights needed.
• Say I'm at the library and I want to go to a grocery store. I've never gone there from the library and I'm not sure how far it is. Should I just walk it? Wait for a bus? I can look the bookstore's address up on the web (on my phone), and then key it into the map app. Next, I ask for directions from where I am now. And because of the GPS, the phone "knows" where I am. It tells me the best way to walk there and also the distance. Nice.
• I haven't gotten lost in awhile, but if I ever did, I would use my phone map app with GPS to find out where I was, and how to get to a bus stop or wherever else I needed to go. 

Now, all this is NOT expensive. I use a Blackberry from Virgin Mobile: $35 per month for 300 minutes of talk and unlimited GPS, web, e-mail, and text messaging. I've had the phone for over a year and I feel I more than get my money's worth from it. However, if I was buying a phone today, I'd look seriously at Android phones. Virgin has two, one highly rated, the other not. Other no-contract mobile phone carriers are now carrying Android phones, but I can see from reviews that some are much better than others. Android is the new thing, and developers are creating new applications for it like crazy, many of them free. And you don't have the Blackberry surcharge, so on Virgin I would be paying only $25 per month for all of the above. 

S Market Street Bus Stops Closed

So where is this Collins Supply? I guess DART figures that you should know this if you are going to get off at that location. But I've ridden the bus to ShopRite before, and go past there several times a week,  and I have no clue. The least they could do is supply an address so riders could key it into their GPS or Mapquest or something. Do these folks at DART have any connection with people out there in the real world?


FYI, per Google, Collins Supply is located at 517 S. Market Street and is almost a quarter-mile south of the Salvation Army/A Street stop. It's shown on the map to the left. It looks like for Salvation Army, you might be better off using the stop farther north across the river.

I can't believe it's going to take almost a year to clean up the mess on S. Market Street. It seems like they've already been working there for a year. Full employment for road construction workers, I guess.