Reply to The Beltway is at a complete stand still

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP, I hear you, I also feel like bus to metro lengthens my commute a lot and I get that it won't work for everyone. But we're trying really, really hard to avoid getting a second car as long as possible (I think having a second kid might be the breaking point), and those are factors that would help for people who do need or want to use public transit. [/quote]

No doubt, and I am not saying they would have no impact or are bad ideas.  But there are a number of people who post on various threads claiming added buses would be a panacea and everyone should be willing to use them.  I was merely pointing out why it would be hard for increased buses to have a major impact because it would still lead to doubling or tripling of commmite times (more if you required two buses to make it work, more likely when you factor in people often don't go straight home) something I doubt man of the posters would be willing to do themselves.[/quote]

Plenty of people use buses now.   Increased bus frequency would almost certainly make it more viable for more people (especially for people who take more than one, because it would reduce transfer delay)[/quote]

Yup. It certainly wouldn't be a panacea but it's by far the most obvious step to better serve people with transit beyond a mile from metro. Just like a lot of people will just drive instead of using metro on weekend s because the time between trains is so long, and the obvious solution (given political will and funding, obviously) would be to increase service...that's a tradeoff people make with buses every day of the week.[/quote]

The bus I use occasionally is not very full, even in rush.  Increased frequency would help some, but I believe far less than you think.

Even if you triple the current capacity, going from every 30 to every 10 minutes, people's commute times would increase significantly, more so for people not going directly home or those returning post rush when frequency would presumably be reduced.

We hear right and left on this board how an extra 20-30 minute commute is a killer, but in this context people assume folks would be willing to add that time to take the bus.  Not that many would.  And if someone was proposing you increase your commute by that length for the greater good, I doubt you would be too keen either.[/quote]

Some buses are hardly full, some are quite full, and many are in between.

There is evidence from several cities that increased frequency  brings added riders.

What it does to someone's commute time is going to vary tremendously among people. It will depend on what their whole transt commute is like, what their auto alterantive is like, how easy parking is, etc.

Personally when I am not bike commuting, I take a bus to get to the metro (I live outside walking distance to metro)  Parking by the day is expensive, and I hate driving in our traffic, even on a normal weekday. It takes maybe 20 minutes longer, but its much more relaxed.

Note, this is all aside from other things that can be done to make buses faster - transit signal priority for example, or dedicated bus lanes.[/quote]

Sure, people who really hate driving and are very cost sensitive will opt for an extra 20 minute or so commute each way.  People who are starved for time and are willing to pay a little more will take the bus.  At least in my area, there are far more of the latter than the former, but I am sure the mix may change in other areas.

Dedicated lanes and the like will help on some routes, but when you are talking about routes the neighborhoods a few miles from metro, there often is only one lane, or at most two, so a dedicated lane wouldn't be feasible.  But on routes on the beltway or other highways, it might make sense.[/quote]

People who really hate driving OR are very cost sensitive may opt for an added 20 minutes. Or who can use that to get away with one less car per household.

As for lanes, the HOV lanes on I395 are filled with express buses taking NoVa folks to the Pentagon, mostly for transfer to metro.  There are more and more HOV and HOT lanes coming.  There is also a bus only lane from Braddock Road in Alex to Crystal City, and such lanes will be coming to Montgomery soon.   And likely 16th Street in DC.

Note transit signal priority (letting the bus driver override the usual traffic signal timing) can be very effective and does not involve taking a whole lane away from other vehicles.[/quote]

Depends what you can use that added 20 minutes for.   I take public transport for an 45 minutes and I could drive in 30.  But my walk to the metro is part of my (limited) exercise routine, and I can read on the metro (documents for work, answer emails on my phone that get sent out when there's a signal).  And I also hate to drive, so there's that.[/quote]

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