Are NextBus and Real-Time Data Coming to Delaware?

I'm really, really interested in having real-time bus data here in New Castle County. Anxious even. This is the one thing mentioned in the SSTI transit report that I think should be rolled out as soon as possible. This kind of data is already available to riders in some metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The system tracks buses using a combination of GPS (global positioning system), AVL (automatic vehicle locator), and smart phone technologies. It then allow riders with said smart phones to check on the location and estimated arrival times of the buses they want to ride.

If you want to learn more about this system, go to Nextbus.com and have a look. And here's an interesting surprise: DART is listed! Click on the "Select Your Transit System" button on the right, scroll down to Delaware, and you will find DART. Only Routes 201-208 are shown, and they don't appear to be active yet. Could they be getting ready to roll these out for the summer tourist season?

According to what I've read, using a smart phone you go to the NextBus website for your transit system, click on your route and your stop, and then get information about the next buses serving that stop. The screen shot example to the right also appears to give information about other bus routes serving your stop, which can sometimes be very useful.

Another way this can work is by selecting your route and then clicking on a map. I selected Route 201 and then clicked on the Google Map (because it's what works on my Blackberry). The map shows the route and bus stops. I clicked randomly on a stop, and here's an example of what we'll be seeing, except that there should also be a real-time prediction of the next bus arrival times at the stop I chose.

This is just so cool! So if the bus is running late, or early, I can know and be ready. I've read that on some systems, smart phone users can actually see the bus moving along its route on the map on their phones. Also, I see from the NextBus website that a variety of other ways to access information are available, including text messages and information from an automated phone system. I don't know what features we'll eventually have here in Delaware. One nice thing: there are no direct charges to users of the website. I'd imagine, however, that the site is funded by the various transit systems.

I think a system like this, rolled out for the whole state, would go a long way towards increasing ease and satisfaction of use for DART riders. The most frequent complaints I hear, from both riders and non-riders, is the problem  of missing buses because they run early or late, and especially the delay and anguish this causes when a bus is missed when trying to make a transfer on a long trip. This is one of the primary worries cited by non-riders I've met as reason they don't consider riding the bus.

For a lot of reasons, DART buses are unlikely to be reliably on time in the near future. But having this kind of real-time information will make it much easier for riders to plan trips and make quick changes in plan when conditions dictate. This will certainly makes  riders trips quicker and lives easier. Importantly, this will also give them a feeling of greater control. Riders who transition from cars to transit definitely suffer from a feeling of helplessness, of loss of the control they felt when they used their own car. Real-time transit information will, I think, restore some of that feeling of control, and make transit use more attractive to a greater number of people.

Another thing I realized is that this service will be wonderful for people with vision or mobility problems. Identifying and making your way to your bus at crowded stops, where a lot of buses arrive in quick succession, can be difficult for even marginally handicapped folks. Knowing where your bus is and how soon it will arrive will be very, very helpful to this category of rider.

My understanding is that DART already has GPS-based AVL on some or all of its buses. So let's hope they are able to roll out this system state-wide sooner rather than later.

The Full Wilmington Transit Report

Good news: we can all read the full transit report that was discussed by the News Journal last month - Reimagining a Legacy Transit System: Lessons from Wilmington, Delaware, published April, 2013.

I discussed this April 27 article in this blog post. I did not realize until recently that a link to a pdf file of the full report had been added to DART's website. It's not a long report, just 9 pages, and although it contains some jargon, I found it very interesting.

The report is more nuanced than I expected based on the News Journal report. I was disappointed to see that it failed to address the scheduling stupidity that directly CAUSES most stacking of buses at Rodney Square. I don't know why every report, whether by the News Journal or a government entity, fails to acknowledge this fact. Maybe it's not really apparent unless, like me, you've spent many hours sitting at Rodney Square, watching the buses come in and then go out. Or maybe it's purposeful, for some reason not discernible to me.

By the way, I was curious about the authorship. I Googled State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) and discovered a set of slides, in pdf format, that were used in SSTI's April 26 webinar regarding their report. Some nice photos and maps!

SSTI appears to be a University of Wisconsin-based organization with around 20 state members and a smallish staff. Although I found no funding information on their website, I''d guess they are largely funded by state and federal grants. They appear to issue reports and newsletters and to host webinars and meetings regularly.

It's nice... really nice!... to see DART appear to be pursuing viable short- and long-term solutions based on what appear to be state-of-the-art research and technical approaches. Now, the challenge is to get some of the great ideas in SSTI's report implemented, or even just to get our local governments and DART to pay attention and start making some concrete decisions and plans. Whatever, the report is certainly worth reading by anyone who uses or cares about public transit here in New Castle County. 

No DART Notice about Construction on Lincoln?

DelDOT has recently begun a big project on the far west side of Wilmington. They got things underway The project involves improvements to the roads and some sidewalks along S. Lincoln and Union Streets at about Sycamore St., on the far west side of Wilmington, and continuing on to the south to include Kirkwood Highway as far as Elsmere, from what I understand. The beginning of the work is focused on the area around the intersection of Lincoln and Sycamore, as shown on the map.

I notice that although the bus stop on Lincoln at Sycamore is inaccessible (and unusable), there has been NO announcement by DART of this closure, none of the usual Rider Alerts. As of yesterday, not only was the right lane of Lincoln blocked off in this area, the sidewalk where the stop is located was being replaced and the whole area along the east side of Lincoln was inaccessible to pedestrian traffic. I do not understand why this is not included in DART's rider alerts!

This project will last through this spring and summar. Users of Route 6, which runs between Rodney Square and Newark, along Kirkwood Highway, Lincoln St., and Union St., are going to need a lot of patience. They will often need to allow extra travel time I would guess. Already, with just the sidewalk replacement work at and near the corners of Lincoln and Sycamore, the closure of the right lane of traffic is causing a lot of traffic to stack up at the lights during rush hours. This will inevitably delay the buses.

The roadwork does appear to be needed. Kirkwood Highway just south of the area shown on the above map looks like a patchwork quilt. Still, bus and other vehicle travel will definitely be affected. I just wonder why we're not getting word of this from DART, as we have done about road construction in the downtown and Christiana Mall areas? This is also a very heavily travelled area.

How to Find the Closest Bus Stop

When I first started riding the bus, once I figured out which bus route I needed to use to get where I was going, I then needed to know at which stops I should get on and off. That was a little tricky, and still is. DART's paper bus schedules only show a few of the available stops along the way. More complete planning tools are often needed. The best I've discovered are:

DART's spreadsheet-format listing of all bus stops in Delaware 
You can get to this downloadable table from the page on DART's website where you access bus schedules. If you use these tables, you'll notice that the far left column is for the route number, starting with Route 1. All the OUT (outbound) stops for a given route are listed first, then all the IN (inbound) stops for the same route. (In case you didn't know, "outbound" means the route going away from Rodney Square or other transit hub, "inbound" means heading towards the hub.)

This list is NOT smartphone-friendly, and is hard to read even on a laptop computer. Stop locations are not always specific or clear, either. But it is up-to-date and includes all current stops. If you print it out, keep in mind that it may change twice a year, whenever the new service changes are rolled out.

Google Maps with the transit overlay, or Google Transit
These Google maps are much more usable than either DART's paper bus schedules, or the tables referred to above. Under the option "Get Directions," Google lets you list your departure and destination addresses, click on the "transit" icon, and then get directions for one or more alternative bus or train routes. The directions include bus route information, and show how far you need to walk (or take a taxi) to your destination address. You can even plug in desired departure or arrival times, and get some idea of when you need to get to the bus stop or train station, and when you will arrive. Very, very quick and helpful.

The local Google map will show little blue bus stop icons ONLY IF you have the transit overlay option selected. Keep in mind also that stops are only shown when you have zoomed to a fairly large scale version of the map. However, Google's maps, including the transit overlay, seem to work really well on almost all smartphones, tablets, and computers. I can even use this on my old Blackberry. Works perfectly, if not at lightning speed!

Be aware, however, that Google's data for stop locations and schedule times may not be totally complete nor up-to-date. Especially after a service change, you might want to double-check stops and especially times. In the past, I've noted a few stops that were not shown on my phone's Google map. (These were of course included on DART's bus stop table.)

Another thing to be careful of is Google's assumption that buses run approximately on schedule. We DART passengers know differently, don't we? Realistically, the Google transit directions often need to be tweaked to allow enough time at transfer points. My experience has been that it I need to allow at least 15 minutes for a transfer at Rodney Square. Even so, I'll still sometimes miss my transfer, due to tardy arrivals and (even more annoyingly) ahead-of-schedule departures by a some drivers.

Dart Drivers
Some of the best sources of information about routes and bus stops are the DART drivers. I've never failed to get reliable information from drivers. However, they may not necessarily know the locations of destinations or landmarks that you use to determine the best bus stop to get off. So I like to do my own homework beforehand. 

Resumed Transit Hub Discussion for Wilmington?

Once again the subject of a real transit hub for Wilmington is being discussed. And it's about time! The News Journal, in a Saturday article (April 27, 2013), discusses a report that was recently released by the State Smart Transportation Initiative, whatever that is. According to the article :

“A transit hub may or may not be what comes out of the community conversation, but I think it needs to be discussed,” said Mary Ebeling, a transportation policy analyst with the State Smart Transportation Initiative."

Also:

'Locating the hub by the train and bus stations “would truly capture available multi-modal opportunities,” the study found. A transit corridor connecting Rodney Square, the central business district and other destinations would offer a chance to improve bicycle infrastructure, too, according to the study.'

To this, I give a resounding "duuuh."

Shailen Bhatt, head of DOT, seems to like the idea of a hub, but points out that it would be expensive. He suggests raising fares, among other sources of potential income. So... Dover got a hub, Newark got a hub, and fares remained the same. Wilmington gets a hub and fares must be raised? Also, as the most populous city and population center in Delaware, why is Wilmington the last to get a transportation hub? That doesn't even make sense.

The study also suggests that DART should "maintain a presence" at Rodney Square. Another big "duuhhh."

A third not-so-favorite quote from the article:

"DART has recently tried to find ways to reduce dangerous bus-stacking around the square."

Ummm, not so much. If you sat at Rodney Square and observed bus traffic, you would have seen long, quiet periods with almost no buses arriving, punctuated with shorter frantic periods when dozens of buses would arrive, let off and take on riders, and then depart. During those periods, buses were indeed "stacked." DART has never, in the years I've been a rider, attempted to stagger bus arrivals and departures in a way that would even out traffic. Talk about creating a problem and then using it to try to justify an unpopular solution.

And speaking of unpopular solutions, the article, as background, rehashes the previous attempts to dismantle the hub and redistribute stops throughout the downtown area. Well, with relocation of Rodney Square stops during construction at the Square and adjacent library, that objective was partially and temporarily accomplished, wasn't it? And what fun it was, last summer, having to fight through traffic in King Street in order to get to other nearby stops for a transfer, because no practicable accommodation had been made for foot traffic. I just stopped shopping downtown, personally. Sorry, Wilmington merchants. I'm sure many others did the same.

The City of Wilmington and DART really need to get together and at least begin planning a real hub. And the train station area is indeed the logical place, for the reasons noted above. It just totally makes sense in every way. It could eliminate bus and pedestrian congestion in the downtown area, but be close enough to run frequent trolleys so that nobody getting off a bus from the suburbs has to wait for more than a few minutes to be on their way downtown.  It would allow easy coordination of bus and train travel. It would concentrate travelers in one area, making safety and policing easier and more economical. In turn, more effective  policing would heighten travelers' safety, and perception of safety, especially at night.

Wilmington just absolutely needs a real transit hub. Gas is not going to get cheaper, and as the 1% get richer and the rest of us, not so much... it is inevitable that public transportation use will increase. Rodney Square worked for a while, but now we need to join the 21st century, and make plans for a first class transportation hub for our city. One that will make it easy, practical, and safe for people to come here to work and shop will benefit everyone.

An Excellent Response from Montgomery!

Well, I stand corrected. I just received a very nice response from mayoral candidate Bill Montgomery. Here it is:

"Thanks for contacting me regarding the transit hub. I believe that the many DART riders who use the Wilmington hub should be treated with more dignity. They should be protected from the heat of summer and the cold of winter. 

I favor the construction of a modern, well-located, in-door, downtown transit hub. It should have a comfortable waiting room, clean restrooms, a snack bar or vending area, and continuous, on-site security. The best example I've seen in our region is the hub in downtown Reading, PA

As Mayor, I will work with the State and federal transportation officials to try to build such a facility. It's time to give transit riders the respect and proper facilities that they deserve!"

This is an excellent response. I have not seen the Reading hub, but these ideas are good ones. Let's hope he is sincere about this.

I don't think the downtown hub necessarily has to be indoors, but shelter is definitely a must. People riding the bus do need to dress according to the weather, including boots and warm clothing when it snows, and umbrellas or other rain gear when it is going to rain. But shelter is still needed... from the very cold winds of winter. And also from the driving rains that can occur during thunder squalls in the summer. No umbrella will help you when the wind is blowing heavy rain sideways. Decent shelters are needed, without all the missing panes DART has allowed to accumulate,

And restrooms! Yes. I've had to wait for 45 minutes to an hour or more for transfers at Rodney Square, and if nature calls, it can really be a problem. They do need to be clean and maintained, and there needs to be continuous security. Actually, having spent many hundreds of hours waiting at Rodney Square for buses, at all hours of the day and night, I have not found security to be a problem. The police and the Downtown Visions people have done a fairly good job, in my opinion. There are the occasional crazies, of course. And I've seen quite a few loud arguments between acquaintances - the ones I've seen most often seem to involve women fighting about some guy. Ex-wife or girlfriend vs. current one. These sometimes escalate, and my guess is the rare violent stuff is usually of that nature. I could be wrong. One of my relatives tells me that there is rampant drug dealing at Rodney Square, but I haven't seen it. It's really not the best place to do that kind of stuff, because there are so many cameras and police and people watching.

Thanks to Bill Montgomery for such a nice response. I certainly agree with him down the line on this. So he's back at the top of my short list.

A Call from a Williams Campaign Worker

I had a call from a Williams mayoral campaign worker this evening. She had one of those unpleasant accents - somewhere north of here. I still can't reliably distinguish Philadelphia from New York, I'm afraid. And someone told me there is an actual Delaware accent, mostly a downstate thing. I can't imagine what it could be. If anyone knows, let me know please.

Anyway, on topic again, the caller asked whether they could "count on me," and I said I hadn't made up my mind yet. I was troubled by the financial issues reported for Williams. But... my real hot button issue was the public transport problem here in Wilmington, namely Baker's attempts to get rid of the hub at Rodney Square without planning any kind of reasonable replacement. If a candidate came out solidly against this policy, and in favor of some real, proactive planning for bus passengers in downtown Wilmington, I could overlook a lot.

"Hmmm," she said. "Well, thank you for your time. Click."

I guess she didn't know how to respond. Meaning this issue isn't anywhere on the radar for Williams.

Guess that's another one I won't be supporting, let alone voting for. That makes two, as I still have had zero response from Montgomery. Losers.