A Squeaky Wheel

What do you do when you encounter problems when riding the bus? And yeah, if you ride there will be problems... some big, some small. Most of the passengers I meet bitch and complain to other riders. "Typical," they say. And they tell me about similar situations they've encountered. But do they complain to anybody who can do something about the problem? Not usually, from what I've seen.

Some passengers call DART when they're mad about something, especially if a bus hasn't shown up and they want to know why. I'm not sure whether calls help or not. I have only called once, and that about a driver on a route 33 bus who was chronically taking off from Rodney Square one to three minutes early. When the bus took off early just as I was 15 feet from the door, and I realized that if it had departed on time I would not have missed my connection... again... I was irate.  I called right then from my cell phone and I have to say that the DART customer service representative was polite and sympathetic. We checked my watch time to be sure it was accurate (it was) and she said she would bring it to the attention of a supervisor.

Usually, though, I've sent my complaints in e-mail. I suspect that may be more effective. One reason is that  in an e-mail you can be very specific and provide accurate details: bus route, date, time, location. I generally save my complaints for things I think are fairly serious, and I have to say I've seen changes to mitigate the situations I complained about. Maybe a coincidence, but other riders are probably complaining about the same things, and it DOES seem like DART is listening.

For example, I complained in the past about the serious overcrowding on route 6 buses between rush hours. Drivers were declaring "bus full" and passing riders (like me) by, leaving them to wait 30-45 minutes for the next bus. I know others were complaining, including drivers, and sure enough, at the next service change the intervals between buses on route 6, during non-rush daytime hours,  had been decreased to 20 minutes between Rodney Square and Prices Corner.

Some drivers display incredibly bad judgement, and when this happens you really should let DART know. Either by e-mail (probably most effective) or phone. You need to be specific about the date, time, location, and bus route if you expect any results. One Saturday morning I had a route 6 driver almost fail to pick me up from a stop on Union Street. She had been far over the speed limit, but did manage to stop about a half a block farther on, so I had to run down the street to board. When I politely (really!) suggested that she needed to drive a little slower in this area (it is residential with a 25 MPH limit), she informed me that there were too many parked cars along Union, so she couldn't see passengers at the stop. Therefore she needed me to stand "way out" so she could see me. I told her that this was a dangerous corner, with a lot of traffic turning right, and there was no way I would be standing in the street to wait. She said in that case, then, maybe next time she just wouldn't stop for me.

Now that was a driver who needed discipline. I e-mailed DART, related the story, and asked whether I was actually required to stand in the street. I eventually got a reply saying, no, DART does not recommend that passengers stand in the street to wait for buses, and that my information would be passed on to the driver's supervisor. I don't know if any action was taken, but I never had that particular problem again.

DART supervision of drivers seems pretty lax, to me. Maybe it's a training problem, too. The old-timers are generally professional, but behavior of a few of the newer drivers is amazingly bad. It seems to me that it is important for riders to pass on information about significantly bad driver comportment to the management. Because they will have no clue if we don't.

Study: Public Transportation Benefits

I recently ran across an interesting study, published just this June: Evaluating Public Transportation and Health Benefits. The study was done by the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute for The American Public Transportation Association. The overall findings of the study are that:

"High quality public transportation (convenient, comfortable, fast rail and bus transport) and transit oriented development (walkable, mixed-use communities located around transit stations) tend to affect travel activity in ways that provide large health benefits, including reduced traffic crashes and pollution emissions, increased physical fitness, improved mental health, improved basic access to medical care and healthy food and increased affordability which reduces financial stress to lower-income households."

The report is very readable, and available on the internet, so if you are interested, check it out. I've always been convinced that having a good, usable public transportation network is not only good for the riders, but good for the community as a whole.

Saturday Bus Ride

I rode the bus yesterday for the first time in over a week. Being on vacation is nice, but it's been so hot I haven't wanted to go out much, certainly not stand for who-knows-how-long on a sweltering street corner waiting for the bus that is always late. I've done some shopping on foot, in the morning before it gets very hot.Still not ideal, but the weather is what it is.

But duty called yesterday, and I had to travel to the library to teach my Saturday afternoon class. We didn't meet last week. Usually I walk... it's about 25 minutes. But yesterday... no way!

So I caught the route 6 bus which was only 5-10 minutes late. I'm very lucky that my closest inbound stop on Lincoln is shaded by a nice, big leafy green tree. I always go 10 minutes early, because very occasionally the bus runs early! So I waited about 20 minutes in the heat, but in the shade and with a decent breeze. Weather can certainly make commuting without a car into a bit of a trial, can't it? I felt for the folks waiting on hot, unshaded corners.

I always like riding DART on Saturdays. There's a whole different feel to it. Although some people are going to or from jobs, there's still a weekend feel to things. Different drivers, too, with lots of variation. I'm  told weekend drivers are usually new, with lower seniority. Yesterday's driver was a very cheerful woman, happy and engaged. How nice! Sometimes you get the ones who clearly don't like what they are doing, glum and sometimes even hostile. The worst are the power-mongers who think that now they have the wheel of a bus, they can lord it over all the riders at their mercy. I could tell some good stories!

So it was a nice, short Saturday ride. The library was well-chilled, of course. New bus schedules out in the lobby stand, so I finally stocked on those for all my usual routes. And I decided to walk home, which was hot but ok. I needed to stop at the 7-11 for some milk, anyway. One thing I've learned is that when you don't use a car, it's a good idea to be efficient, and get as much done with each trip as possible. So I got my milk... plus a pint of Ben and Jerry's... who could resist ice cream when the temperature was at the 100 degree mark? It was good, too. I'm glad to see the forecasts showing a break in this heat!

Problem with DART Layovers at Transfer Points

Well, it's been HOT and I'm on staycation this month. So not as much bus riding. I kind of miss it! I hope the new schedules are now in the buses. I need to revise the bus schedules in my phone to be sure I have the changes. Nothing worse than complaining about a late bus, and then discovering you have the wrong schedule!

One thing I have been wanting to gripe about is yet another DART/Rodney Square thing. We know that they have intentionally scheduled lots of buses to arrive at close to the same time, then almost no buses for a half hour followed by another mass arrival of buses. From my observation at Rodney Square, lots of buses arrive around a quarter to the hour, and then a quarter after. If you sit and watch the buses, you will notice that there are long periods of time during which only one or two buses come and go. So the pile-up is definitely a DART creation.

Another thing makes this problem worse. Some buses "lay over" at Rodney Square for anywhere from 5-10 minutes to nearly a half hour. This happens when a bus pulls up, lets its passengers disembark, and then the driver just parks there until his next run. Usually he has the signage as "Dart Garage" rather than the upcoming route number. He may lock up the bus and leave for a potty break or to get a coffee. A few minutes before his next run, he returns, turns the route number signage, opens the doors, and starts letting passengers enter the bus.

I've also seen this happen frequently at the Christiana Mall Target/Food Court stop, where a lot of people transfer. There are way fewer buses here, but it still creates problems and I've missed my transfer bus at this location because a driver returned to his laid-over bus, turned on the route sign, and took off immediately -  before I even saw the route sign!

There are several problems with buses laying over like this:

• It adds to the congestion at Rodney Square (or elsewhere). During busy periods, there may not even be enough spaces for buses to pull up and park along King, 10th, or 11th Streets. Buses that are not actively unloading passengers, or allowing them to get on, have no business taking up space here. The drivers should find another place to park if they need to take a break.
• Some drivers leave their buses parked mid-block. This creates chaos when other buses arrive. Some may pull in ahead of the parked bus, some behind. Riders have no idea where their incoming bus will park, and if they are handicapped, elderly, or have poor vision, this creates a big problem, as they do not know where to wait for their bus... in front of the parked bus, or behind? If they guess wrong, and their bus leaves before they can discover it is there and make their way to it, they will miss it.
• When a bus is parked without route signage displayed, at or near the "head of the line," riders are left to wonder whether THAT bus will "turn into" their bus, or whether their bus will shortly pull in way down the block. This is a particularly difficult problem during busy periods when buses are stretched all the way down the block. And it's even harder for the elderly, disabled, and those with poor vision. To be sure not to miss your bus, you have to keep scuttling up and down the block, to see it signage has been turned on in the unsigned layover bus, or the bus you're looking for has arrived at the other end of the block. 
• The driver of the layover bus too often arrives back at his bus just before it is scheduled to leave. He turns on the route sign, waits a minute or two, and then takes off. Passengers waiting for this bus near the other end of the block may not have time to make their way to the layover bus before it leaves, even if they are able to see it (often impossible when the trees at Rodney Square are leafed out). I have personally seen drivers pull out within a minute or less of turning on their route signs, and heard other angry riders complaining of drivers who turn on the route sign as they are pulling out. 

This is a supervision problem. Where are the DART supervisors? This stuff should not be happening at all, and would not be so common if drivers were well-trained and were adequately supervised. I should note that it's just a minority of drivers who do this... most have good sense and are there to make travel easier for their riders. But that unprofessional minority does give DART a bad name.

Where are the New Schedules?

An aside: Code orange predicted for today's air quality... again. Along with 90 degree temps and higher humidity. Sounds like a not-so-nice day. But the bus' air conditioning will feel good!

As noted in Saturday's post, new schedules come into effect this Sunday. I hope we'll start seeing the schedules this week. So far I haven't seen one... on the bus, or in a library. I have checked the online schedules for the buses I ride most often, and don't see much change. That despite DART's assertion that there would be "minor" changes in schedules for those routes that had been planned for the move from Rodney Square to the now-abandoned (one hopes for good!) Shipley Street location. The reason given for these changes is that they are supposed to "reduce the number of buses at Rodney Square at one time."

Given the huge pileup of buses that occurs at Rodney Square during rush hours, mostly around a quarter to and a quarter past the hour, I'd guess it would require more than "minor changes" to fix that problem. (A problem that was, obviously, created by DART itself.)

Saturday afternoon, at my local library, I looked for new schedules and saw none. Still the old ones. On the bus, no schedules at all. I don't get it. Not everyone has easy access to the internet, or even knows how to use it. Dart schedules are in .pdf or humongous Excel spreadsheet form, so that you can't just load 'em up on your smartphone. How are people who regularly commute by bus, and have no access to the online schedules, supposed to plan their trips prior to a service change? Libraries all have schedules, but they are never changed out until AFTER the service change has taken place. Big help.

DART needs to make these service changes easier to negotiate for non-computer-owning riders. Have points across the community where people can go pick up the NEW schedules at least one week, preferably two or more, before a service change takes effect. Riders all know that even small changes in schedule can make the difference between catching and missing a bus you need to ride. A change of as little as five minutes can necessitate a big change in a rider's schedule. Maybe he'll have to catch an earlier bus, to be sure he can make a needed transfer. This is a matter of great importance to riders who need to arrive on time for work or medical appointments.

I've seen riders at Rodney Square going from bus to bus at service changes, asking drivers if they have schedules for a specific route, and not finding them. Your bus may have schedules, but as often as not, they are not for the route you're on. Yes, the Wilmington library across the street from Rodney Square maintains a rack of schedules, but are they updated before the change, allowing people to plan ahead? Are they even open in the morning before 9:30, when most people are making their morning commute? (No to both.) Please, DART, make printed schedules available well before planned service changes.

New DART Schedules for July 17 Available

Yesterday DART sent out an announcement reminding riders of the long-delayed Service Change that will happen on July 17. That's a week from Sunday. As we already know, the Wilmington transit hub will remain at Rodney Square. There are only 3 significant changes:

• Route 16 - route path into downtown Wilmington will change, traveling up Walnut St., 8th St., French St., 10th St. to Rodney Square continuing to West St., 12th St., ending on Delaware Ave. at Adams St. The out of town path will come from Delaware Ave. serving the stop on 11th St. side of Rodney Square instead of the King St. side. Stops on Orange St. will no longer be served by this route.

• Route 24 - new trip will be added leaving Kynlyn Drive at 6:28 a.m., arriving Rodney Square at 6:52 a.m.

• ***Route 25 - NEW SERVICE EXTENSION - The 1 year pilot service, made available through the DNREC Community Environmental Project Fund, will travel along DE 9 to Clinton Street to Canal Road ending at the existing parking area located on Washington Street. On the return, service will include Washington Street to DE 9 to the Tybouts Corner Park & Ride, then resumes its currently operated service to Wilmington. Service operates from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday.***

Other changes include:

• Routes originally proposed for switching to Shipley Street (mostly those that load on King Street), now remaining at Rodney Square, will have minor time changes to reduce the number of buses at Rodney Square at one time.

• Minor time adjustments to Route 55 between Glasgow and Newark to improve on-time performance.

The new schedules are now available online here in pdf format. DART's announcement says that printed schedules will be available on buses. I did not see any yesterday, but if we're lucky we'll see some by next week.

An updated Excel spreadsheet that includes all bus route schedules in available here. This is a large spreadsheet, not phone-friendly. Wouldn't it be nice if, some day, DART would provide route schedules that could easily be pulled up and read on people's smartphones?

Route 40 Inbound is Always Late in the Afternoon

I've been riding Route 40 to and from Bear several times a week for almost two years. For the last couple of months the afternoon inbound runs are always late. Not once in a while, but always. I usually catch the bus at Governor's square, across the street from the K-Mart shopping center. The Route 40 bus that is supposed to be there at 4:38 p.m. never arrives until 4:50, 4:55, or even later. Instead of arriving at Rodney Square at the scheduled 5:15, we typically arrive at 5:25, often later. So much for transferring to the 5:20 Route 6 bus, like I always used to do.

I'm not sure what is causing the tardiness. I know Route 40 has "a reputation," from speaking with drivers of other routes. But I've had a few drivers on Route40 who seemed almost always to be on time, or very close to it. Then the driver changed and the schedule was missed by 10 or more minutes, consistently. So I suspect it's to some extent a function of the driver's efficiency. And let's face it... some drivers are efficient , and some are not. Some clearly care about their schedule, others obviously don't give a rip.

But it is unfair to passengers to have bus schedules so consistently blown. Are there managers watching? If a bus is always late, isn't it time to amend the schedule? Allow more time? Make sure drivers are able to get a timely start, and not have to take "potty breaks" that cause them to lose time? (Yes, this is a not-unheard-of occurrence on Route 40, as drivers take a break at the park-and-ride on Routes 7 and 273.)