[sustran] Re: Thinking Outside the Bus

[Brendan Finn]

Agreed. 

Lisa Margonelli's article presents three different examples of practice. I
agree with Jonathan that it is well written, on target, and not in the
least misleading. I have come across the first two in practice in various
places and on different scales, the third one is new to me and may partly
solve a problem here in Ireland. I'll bring it back to a working group
next week and see what we can do with it. Thanks to Sujit for posting the
link. 

The three examples meet the actual mobility needs of their (growing)
client base, they do so effectively, and their clients are actually happy
to use them. That's more than can be said for a lot of transit services.
This should encourage transit agencies, planners, operators and
researchers to take a look at see what they can take from it.

I am a bit disappointed (but not so surprised) at the put-downs. In the
transit business, when an idea or case study is put on the table, people
seem to fall into two groups. The innovators, the curious, and those who
want to solve problems say "This looks interesting, can it meet our needs
over here, how does it work, how could I adapt it?". Sometimes you find
that maybe it is not really transferrable after all, other times you can
do something with it. Then there are others who are only interested to
look for reasons why it won't work (even though it is working in the cited
example), find fault, and not only bin it but encourage others to also do
so. 

Let me share something with the Sustran community, as a community of
transit professionals:

It is not Lisa Margonelli's job to figure out how all of this could work
in your community and mine. That is your job, and mine too. Ms. Margonelli
has already done her job by reporting and raising our awareness.

With best wishes, 


Brendan.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
Brendan Finn          e-mail : etts at indigo.ie          tel :
+353.87.2530286





On 29/05/2012 17:22, "Jonathan Richmond" <richmond at alum.mit.edu> wrote:

>
>
>I wrote a book, "The Private Provision of Public Transport" about
>alternative ways of offering transit services, that included case-studies
>of both the New York and Miami jitney services and I agree with the
>brilliantly-written New York Times article. It is not misleading at all,
>but dead on target.
>
>I disagree about the advantage of a "connective network" in locations
>where there is low demand. Such a system runs empty buses all day and
>forces people to make unnecessary changes along their route. The
>Brunswick 
>example shows imagination in instead creating a service that has both
>fixed characteristics that cater to primary demands (the route may be
>circuitous, but it hits all major points people without cars need to go
>to) but also offers flexibility.
>
>As to the jitneys, they are an example of the advantages of private
>enterprise. The drivers are offering this service because they are able
>to 
>earn more than in alternative occupations available to them. Certainly,
>they are making less than in regular transit jobs, but that is not the
>point. They are might not qualify to be regular bus drivers -- and they
>might even prefer to do small-scale community oriented enterprise. The
>service provided is terrific and meets local needs far better than the
>conventional transit alternative.
>
>                                        --Jonathan
>
>On Tue, 29 May 2012, Paul Barter wrote:
>
>> On 29 May 2012 14:26, Sujit Patwardhan <patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>> Conventional wisdom says that the way to create or improve public
>>>transit
>>> is to invest billions to engineer rails, trains and buses. But the
>>> Brunswick Explorer is one of many innovators that are seeing transit as
>>> more than an engineering problem and trying to  build transit that
>>>meets
>>> the needs of its residents.
>>> 
>>>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/thinking-outside-the-bus
>>>/
>>> ...
>>
>>
>> Yes, it is an interesting item. But be careful! It is misleading (at
>>least
>> for places with high labour costs).
>>
>> See http://www.humantransit.org/2011/11/new-york-times-how-to-be-co
>> nfused-about-transit.html for a thoughtful critique of this NYT article.
>> Jarrett Walker writes:
>>
>> "Brunswick's local buses, in short, are geared to people with special
>> needs, as small-town transit systems often are. ... These systems are
>> absolutely laudable. ... But they are intrinsically inefficient, in
>>terms
>> of passengers service per unit of public cost... Serving special needs
>>is a
>> good thing to do, but it requires lots of staff time per passenger, so
>>it
>> will always have a very high cost per passenger.
>>
>> Unless ... you pay the drivers less. Margonelli's next story is about
>>the
>> emerging minibuses of New York, an important private sector initiative
>>...
>> The genius of these buses is that they tolerate lower ridership
>>(mandated
>> in fact by their small size) but they can do this because the drivers
>>make
>> much less than unionized transit agency labor. ...
>>
>> So is Margonelli really a ferocious right-wing union-busting capitalist?
>> No, she's just unclear on transit's basic geometry and economics."
>>
>>> From the same source (Human Transit blog) here is a better example of
>>>how
>> to do surprisingly well with public transport even in a very
>> transit-unfriendly suburban environment with high labour costs (
>> 
>>http://www.humantransit.org/2012/05/fort-lauderdale-yet-another-triumph-f
>>or-multi-destinational-networks.html).
>> The key is a 'connective network' with regular service in a grid (for
>> example) and making connections between services attractive and easy.
>>
>> Paul
>> -- 
>> Working to make urban transport and parking enrich our lives more and
>>harm
>> us all less.
>> paulbarter at reinventingtransport.org
>> http://www.reinventingtransport.org  http://www.reinventingparking.org
>> --------------------------------------------------------
>> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
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>>
>> ================================================================
>> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
>>equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
>>(the 'Global South').
>>
>
>-----
>Jonathan Richmond
>+1 617 395-4360
>e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
>http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/
>--------------------------------------------------------
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>
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>SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
>equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
>(the 'Global South').
>