Ok. I have drunk the Kool-Aid and am in total support of the idea I threw out yesterday that dramatically increasing bus service is the best way to reduce congestion, improve global warming and reduce air pollution. Screw Light Rail and forget building roads as solutions. Here's why:
1. The Light Rail plan doesn't have enough track or enough stations. Chicago's elevated train has over 250 miles of track with 144 stations. It runs all the time. If you're in the Loop a train comes every freaking 2 minutes. Seattle's Light Rail plan will have 1/5th of the track, far fewer stations and will take a long long time to build. I just don't think it's going to have the dramatic increase in ridership that increasing the number of buses would.
2. Frequency -- Many people that do not commute to work on the bus will take buses up and down the north-south streets of downtown Seattle. It's free, so that's part of it but I would argue it's mostly because the buses come by every minute or two. These same people would not take the bus if it came every 30 minutes even if it was free. In my opinion, that's why the L or Manhattan's subway system is used by so many people -- because you don't have to wait! It's simply faster and more convenient.
3. Increasing the number of roads may reduce congestion, or may not, but it will obviously not reduce pollution.
4. The City of Seattle can test my theory -- We do not have to build a Light Rail system for 10 years or expand 520. Just take 2-3 bus routes... I'd suggest the 14 (Jackson/Mt.Baker), 27 (Yesler/Leschi) and 3 (Cherry/Madrona) and run them all every 10 minutes. The City of Seattle ALREADY tests how many cars go down these streets. At the end of three months test the number of cars again. If it doesn't increase ridership or decrease cars to make a positive effect on pollution, fine. You've learned a ton without spending much.
Would this reduce global warming? If every bus had more than six passengers that would otherwise drive, then yes. Good discussion here. (Note: this figure is not accounting for the upgraded hybrid-diesel buses starting to be in use since 2004, but uses older '90's style buses.)
Quick math -- There are 70 buses on Yesler/day and 8700 cars. To get to global warming parity, if you increases buses to 220/day as I suggested yesterday, you only need to reduce the number of cars to 7800, or roughly 10%.
My biggest question... what is the particulate effect (non-global-warming causing pollution). I'll examine this later.
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Yes. More buses, more often!
You shouldn't have to LOOK AT A BUS SCHEDULE. You should be able to walk to a stop knowing a bus is coming in a couple minutes. As John notes, that's how it works where it works.
And what about the #12 that periodically only goes half way along it's route and stops! Not only do I have to check the bus schedule, I have to READ THE FOOTNOTES!
And anyone who thinks more roads will ease congestion should look at my beautiful home town of Los Angeles.
More buses, more often. Thanks for the post John.
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