Four must-read blog posts about transit

One month and a few days before the projected 15% transit service cuts on March 27^th – one organization that does not get much love from riders nowadays is the local ATU 85. ACTC member Stu Strickland explains on his blog “Why there is no love for ATU 85”.

Also from Stu’s blog a post written  a while ago but very actual:

186 ways to live with only one car.

“I may change the title of this later; I only picked "186" out of the air; when I first posted this there were only two. My point is, so many people feel they have to have two, three, four, more cars in their possession. And for 12 or more years, my family of four in the middle to outer suburbs has lived with just one car.The bone I wish to pick is that people bad-mouth public transportation, and would gladly fork over $5,000 a year or more, per car, to keep the additional car(s) on the road, while the cost of buying monthly passes (in Pittsburgh) runs well under $1,000 a year. I don't deny you need one car, especially in the suburbs, but if I can make do with only one, I don't see the necessity of having three or more. And I myself used to have four, for a three-year period, and three for over a decade.”

And nowadays he is far from being alone. Michigan University’s Susan Zielinski was recently quoted on twitter as stating that :  “having to own 5 cars is so last millennium!”.  A study quoted by the Infrastructurist indicates that:

“Over the years, car ownership and driving mileage have tended to increase with great regularity. But logic suggests that this march toward complete motorization would eventually plateau — and that’s exactly what transportation scholars have begun to notice…”

This is why, last but not least I’d like to point out  a post by Graham Brownstein  “Top 10 Reasons to Invest in Tansit”  ( via  @TRanspo_Issues on twitter.)

 

Pittsburgh Transit: Headed Where?/ February Updates

Update:

The bus schedules effective March 27th as a result of a 15% cut in service are now posted on the Port Authority's Website: March  27 Service Changes.



Monday, February 14th, President Obama released a new six-year transportation plan [PDF] . One of the highlights of this new plan is a 127% increase for transit funding that aims to reduce the gap between the percentage of funds going for highway and road development, 80% now, a meager 20% for transit. Under the newly proposed plan highways will only receive 74% of funds.

Meantime transit agencies across the country struggle to find the funding resources that will allow them to survive during the next fiscal year. And this is no news for Port Authority riders who are facing the loss of more than one sixth of the service come March. As a matter of fact, Pittsburghers rallied the day after President Obama’s release of the new transportation plan to protest service cuts.

Photo Credit: Lauren Daley

Since transit is an essential feature in the economic development of 21st century urban centers (and this is a topic we had covered here), members of the Allegheny County Transit Council became involved in several projects aimed at not only preserving but improving transit service for Pittsburgh and surrounding urban areas.

Real-Time Bus Schedules:
Real-Time Bus Schedules use data provided by local governments and transit agencies to keep riders informed of delays, detours, and traffic and trip connections. ACTC members Ana Bayne and Michael Sypolt took part in a live chat session where guest Nick Grossman from Open Plans discussed the benefits of real-time bus schedules and the success of the project among MTA riders. Several ACTC members will meet with Mr. Grossman and other developers to discuss real-time schedule related technology during the March East TranspoCamp unconference.


Tiramisu:
On the upside, before the whole GPS issue is clarified, CMU’s transportation project team Traffic 21 is in the last stages of launching a smart phone app that provides real time information to riders by using crowdsourcing, i.e., data collected from riders. Thanks to ACTC member Noelle Badertscher we will be able to return with more details on the app as soon as March. Until then you can check the Traffic 21 website for updates.

Soon transit riders from Pittsburgh will know whatever their bus is late or not or if they should take an early bus because of bad weather or traffic conditions.


Funding:

ACTC members are working on proposals for funding resources with several other community oriented non-profits. Also, by the end of February, a comprehensive map that provides information on service cuts for each electoral district will be available on: http://www.publictransitguide.info/

The map allows riders to compare the effect of service cuts on their own electoral district and take the matter into their own hands by contacting their local representative.

Riding transit with children and having fun...

If we would try to debunk transit related myths the one myth we would deal often when parents are involved is that transit and kids are definitely not a match. Because…
Why? Because it is not safe, buses stink and you may expose your children to unwanted social influences… Or simply because children and transit it isn’t fun …

Michael Sypolt however, disagrees:

“Yesterday, I decided to take my five year old twin girls out to Phipps via
transit. Looking at the title, you might say, how can a day be "beautiful" when
trying to take five year old girls on mass transit. Even more interestingly, I
took them out alone while my wife was having some much needed time away from the children. The day was really enjoyable, for both Dad and the children.”

@PGHtransit –how social media can change your transit experience

I wanted for some time now to write a few words about my experience with @PGHtansit , Port Authority’s tweep [1]. But, as there were more important transit issues such as the TDP changes, service cuts or the funding crisis, I kept on postponing it.   And I postponed it until…I got to read an article about The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority  and how transit providers shall not to use social media. And I realized that I can write a blog post from which WMATA can actually learn – not from me, but from PATs tweep.

So what does @PGHtransit do to make my transit experience better?

·         Acknowledges my questions: even when it does not have an answer, it still tries to work with me on either clarifying the issue or finding a way to help me figure out a solution. When I asked for sidewalks, I was explained why the Port Authority is not able to help me with sidewalk paving and also I was told what authority I may want to contact.

·         Courtesy: even stupid questions deserve an answer.

·         It is effectively helpful: I asked @PGHtransit why the new route 48 did not stop at a previous 51A stop. I was explained how the TDP impacted not only routes but also stops and why the Port Authority is behind with changing stop signs.  I pointed out to @PGHtransit how the old sign got both a new resident and I confused. And if someone like me who rode in the local transit network for several years is expected to know how to keep track of stop changes, for new residents and visitors it is more difficult to figure it out. As a result – the sign was changed.

And the reason why @PGHtransit was able to effectively help –

·         It connects with the riders and other tweeps: One sad fact is that many customer service departments and social media initiatives for public agencies such as WMATA and PAT are disconnected from the rider’s realities. The cause may be that good customer service is related to creating customer value and loyalty and agencies such as WMATA and PAT thought that customer value and loyalty was not an issue. Or the cause may be that riders are assumed to be somewhat stupid –after all they do not drive a car. Or…but this are only assumptions, the real issues beyond the lack of customer service quality are issues for WMATA and PAT and not for me. I can only note the difference among the bus stop related experience I mentioned above and the one I had several months after I moved to the US. I called the phone customer service number that time to ask about a bus stop that appeared on schedules and Google map but could not be found as I walked across the sidewalk. I was told with a condescending tone that there is a bus sign to indicate the bus stop –‘in this country we have those blue signs with the white writing etc.’ I had no success in convincing her that there is no bus sign so either the schedule is wrong or they need to get a bus sign up, she treated me as I had no idea what I was talking about tho I was sitting there looking for an inexistent bus stop. It did not cross that lady’s mind, or perhaps she was not trained to signal to another department that a rider had noted a discrepancy between the printed schedule and the situation in the street. But fortunately there it was social media, twitter and @PGHtransit .

So I do not have to call. I just tweet because:

·         1. I get an answer to the best of its knowledge

·         2. I get someone actually asking other departments for an answer when the answer can be found in another department.

·         3. I get an explanation on why my issue cannot be solved by PAT,  e.g. sidewalks.

·         4. I am given enough credit to be trusted that I provide information about the street, route, bus or bus stop that is as accurate as my own experience makes it. So if I tweet that I do not see the sign or I see a wrong one I am not told that I am perhaps temporarily blind because some paperwork tells us that the right sign is there.

This is why I thank @PGHtransit and because today is February 14 I’ll send it some sort of a  Valentine[2].

What about you? Do you follow @PGHtransit ? What do you think about it?

[1] Here  tweep is used for an individual’s or agency’s persona on twitter. I do not know the person beyond @PGHtransit tweets this is why she/he is called “tweep” and “it”. But I hope to know it one day…

[2] Besides the jewelry advertising and the cards my children give to their teachers and friends I am not sure if it is proper to send a valentine to a tweep, but since it is February 14^th…