The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[bnacincy]

30 minutes ago, BnaBreaker said:

Can we just go back to calling it MTA?  WeGo sounds SO corny and small town to me... like a company of short buses you'd see in any random little burg that is used primarily by old folks who can't drive that use it to get between the nursing home and the Bingo hall.  

It sounds like a laxative to me.

A couple of years ago I emailed the MTA and told them we should have the main bus system called Music City Link- since we already had Music City Circuit and Music City Star. They replied they weren't going to change the name anytime soon.

I also wanted the color scheme dark blue and gold-the Predators' colors. Instead we get a purple laxative.

Oh well.....

[Neigeville2]

I'm fine with Wego and I think the purple buses are lively and eye-catching.  It would be harder to see a black and gold bus coming.  It's good to see a bus from far away, it makes the wait seem shorter and people get their passes and money ready.

[smeagolsfree]

Sort of like the First Ladies BEE BEST. But you have to say it with her accent WEE GO.

[Mr_Bond]

15 hours ago, Neigeville2 said:

I'm fine with Wego and I think the purple buses are lively and eye-catching.  It would be harder to see a black and gold bus coming.  It's good to see a bus from far away, it makes the wait seem shorter and people get their passes and money ready.

Good point.  While waiting for the bus yesterday, I kept looking and looking and looking.  Perhaps that's a sign of a bus-riding-newbie - lots of looking.

[e-dub]

I meant to ask, how did it go yesterday, @Mr_Bond? 

[Mr_Bond]

1 hour ago, e-dub said:

I meant to ask, how did it go yesterday, @Mr_Bond? 

Extremely easy, though a credit card payment method would have helped.  I had to make sure I had three $1 bills and one quarter.  Walked from 12th and Division to 12th and Broadway, waited at the stop for about 10 minutes, stepped on the bus and paid cash for an All-Day Pass, and got off at West End and Acklen.  Reverse on the way back.  The bus was relatively full for a midday trip, I thought, though this route must be one of WeGo's busiest.  Used the time on the bus to catch up on some emails.

Bottom line: I feel more comfortable using WeGo and will factor this into my decision to keep my car or sell it.  Also, I will happily support additional busses and new cross-routes for WeGo.

[e-dub]

1 hour ago, Mr_Bond said:

Extremely easy, though a credit card payment method would have helped.  I had to make sure I had three $1 bills and one quarter.  Walked from 12th and Division to 12th and Broadway, waited at the stop for about 10 minutes, stepped on the bus and paid cash for an All-Day Pass, and got off at West End and Acklen.  Reverse on the way back.  The bus was relatively full for a midday trip, I thought, though this route must be one of WeGo's busiest.  Used the time on the bus to catch up on some emails.

Bottom line: I feel more comfortable using WeGo and will factor this into my decision to keep my car or sell it.  Also, I will happily support additional busses and new cross-routes for WeGo.

Nice!

 

I'll say, when I'm ambling about with no timetable, the bus system is great. It's comfortable and I don't have do the driving. Google Maps is a fantastic app to use to track the buses. Just zoom in until you see the bus stop icon show up, touch it, and it shows the lines that serve that particular stop. You can drill in to a screen that shows you where the bus is and everything, it's pretty well done. On my phone (a Pixel 2 XL), the WeGo app refuses to work so I use Google Maps. Another that works well is an app called "Transit":

 

https://transitapp.com/

[Armacing]

23 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Can we just go back to calling it MTA?  WeGo sounds SO corny and small town to me...

I agree that the name doesn't sound very official, but I wonder if that is an intentional marketing ploy.  Hear me out on this:  I recently started working downtown after being in the suburbs for 20 years and I wasn't up-to-speed on the MTA renaming.  So I saw WeGo and my first thought was "Is there a new start-up company competing with MTA now, kind of like Uber or Lyft, but with buses?".  So maybe my own un-informed assumption gives a window into what the marketing team was looking for:  something that sounds new, hip, maybe innovative like a tech start-up, maybe cooler to ride for the young folks who don't want to ride  something that has the word "Authority" in it.

[Pdt2f]

22 hours ago, Neigeville2 said:

I'm fine with Wego and I think the purple buses are lively and eye-catching.  It would be harder to see a black and gold bus coming.  It's good to see a bus from far away, it makes the wait seem shorter and people get their passes and money ready.

I’m surprised by how much I like the new naming and color scheme. Normally I’m not one for idiotic rebranding of public services, but maybe it’s just that beautiful purple and silver that makes me love this change. 

[markhollin]

Mt. Juliet has set aside $2 million that officials hope will accelerate construction of a new interchange planned at Central Pike and Interstate 40.

The proposed Central Pike interchange would be built west of Mt. Juliet Road near mile marker 225.

The interchange is needed to relieve Mt. Juliet Road traffic as the city grows and to open up development and economic growth opportunities around Central Pike, Mt. Juliet Deputy Public Works Director Andy Barlow said.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/wilson/2018/11/29/mt-juliet-new-interchange-40-central-pike-funding/2136328002/

 

[Tennessine]

2 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

I’m surprised by how much I like the new naming and color scheme. Normally I’m not one for idiotic rebranding of public services, but maybe it’s just that beautiful purple and silver that makes me love this change. 

I think the purple looks great. The name could be better, but the new buses look more inviting than the old.

[fishsticks176]

It’s all getting a bit hip for my liking. Take the WeGo down from SoBro into WeHo. Eat at PuckGro, round of TopGo, drinks at PineSo. Walk to BridgeSto for some IceHo...

[donNdonelson2]

Just now, fishsticks176 said:

It’s all getting a bit hip for my liking. Take the WeGo down from SoBro into WeHo. Eat at PuckGro, round of TopGo, drinks at PineSo. Walk to BridgeSto for some IceHo...

I’ll skip the IceHO 

[BnaBreaker]

3 hours ago, Armacing said:

I agree that the name doesn't sound very official, but I wonder if that is an intentional marketing ploy.  Hear me out on this:  I recently started working downtown after being in the suburbs for 20 years and I wasn't up-to-speed on the MTA renaming.  So I saw WeGo and my first thought was "Is there a new start-up company competing with MTA now, kind of like Uber or Lyft, but with buses?".  So maybe my own un-informed assumption gives a window into what the marketing team was looking for:  something that sounds new, hip, maybe innovative like a tech start-up, maybe cooler to ride for the young folks who don't want to ride  something that has the word "Authority" in it.

That's a very interesting take!  You might be on to something there.

[Tennessine]

30 minutes ago, fishsticks176 said:

It’s all getting a bit hip for my liking. Take the WeGo down from SoBro into WeHo. Eat at PuckGro, round of TopGo, drinks at PineSo. Walk to BridgeSto for some IceHo...

[smeagolsfree]

I never liked the Iceho as it gets my puck cold.

[Dale]

Subscriber-only article in Tennessean: “Progress Slow On Transit”

[smeagolsfree]

Here is the article link for those of you that do. I do think that the transit plan would have had a much better chance if it has not been as ambitious as it was. They really needed to take it slower like Charlotte and other cities have.

Here is a key quote

"In Austin, Texas, a more modest $160 million bond proposal passed by 81 percent of voters who agreed to pay for road, sidewalk and pedestrian safety infrastructure.

Just four years before, a light rail proposal failed in Austin.

So, it is likely that any future referendums in Nashville will have to be less costly, hyper-focused and clearer to voters"

 

Interestingly there is a graph showing percentages of people that drive alone to work and Charlotte is at 76.3%, Nashville 78.36%, Austin 74 %, Raleigh 78.74%, Indy 81.96% to name a few.

So even with the Lynx Charlotte does not fair much better than Nashville. Austin with one leg of their system does better than both , however Austin is much more compact in many ways than Nashville or Charlotte.

 

https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/david-plazas/2018/11/30/nashville-transit-moving-forward-incremental-david-plazas/2137151002/

[Dale]

3 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

Here is the article link for those of you that do. I do think that the transit plan would have had a much better chance if it has not been as ambitious as it was. They really needed to take it slower like Charlotte and other cities have.

Here is a key quote

"In Austin, Texas, a more modest $160 million bond proposal passed by 81 percent of voters who agreed to pay for road, sidewalk and pedestrian safety infrastructure.

Just four years before, a light rail proposal failed in Austin.

So, it is likely that any future referendums in Nashville will have to be less costly, hyper-focused and clearer to voters"

 

Interestingly there is a graph showing percentages of people that drive alone to work and Charlotte is at 76.3%, Nashville 78.36%, Austin 74 %, Raleigh 78.74%, Indy 81.96% to name a few.

So even with the Lynx Charlotte does not fair much better than Nashville. Austin with one leg of their system does better than both , however Austin is much more compact in many ways than Nashville or Charlotte.

 

https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/david-plazas/2018/11/30/nashville-transit-moving-forward-incremental-david-plazas/2137151002/

Charlotte stands as an argument that light rail is a transit-killer. At last check, bus ridership was plummeting.

[Bos2Nash]

16 hours ago, markhollin said:

Mt. Juliet has set aside $2 million that officials hope will accelerate construction of a new interchange planned at Central Pike and Interstate 40.

The proposed Central Pike interchange would be built west of Mt. Juliet Road near mile marker 225.

The interchange is needed to relieve Mt. Juliet Road traffic as the city grows and to open up development and economic growth opportunities around Central Pike, Mt. Juliet Deputy Public Works Director Andy Barlow said.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/wilson/2018/11/29/mt-juliet-new-interchange-40-central-pike-funding/2136328002/

 

Interesting that they want to spend the money on this with the large mall interchange just up the road. Granted there is alot of traffic, but these interchanges are not cheap. Why not invest in re-working the issues of the existing interchange to handle traffic better (ie Diverging Diamond type)

[PruneTracy]

18 hours ago, markhollin said:

Mt. Juliet has set aside $2 million that officials hope will accelerate construction of a new interchange planned at Central Pike and Interstate 40.

The proposed Central Pike interchange would be built west of Mt. Juliet Road near mile marker 225.

The interchange is needed to relieve Mt. Juliet Road traffic as the city grows and to open up development and economic growth opportunities around Central Pike, Mt. Juliet Deputy Public Works Director Andy Barlow said.

That's way too close to the SR 171 interchange. They're barely a mile apart. Why not just a realignment of Pleasant Grove Road?

[MLBrumby]

Uh-oh! It happened... 

https://fox17.com/news/local/police-man-on-bird-scooter-hit-by-car-in-nashville-after-failing-to-stop-at-light

[smeagolsfree]

Unfortunately this will not be the first or the last of many.  Stupid people and machine's,  bad combination. 

[CenterHill]

14 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Uh-oh! It happened... 

https://fox17.com/news/local/police-man-on-bird-scooter-hit-by-car-in-nashville-after-failing-to-stop-at-light

Wowza.  This guy is lucky to live to tell about it.      To his credit, though, he was not riding on the sidewalk, just forgot about red lights.   

From what I observe on a daily basis, we will be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing.    

 

[rookzie]

On 11/30/2018 at 8:41 AM, Dale said:

Charlotte stands as an argument that light rail is a transit-killer. At last check, bus ridership was plummeting.

To say that light rail transit (LRT) is a transit killer, is neither a fair assessment for Charlotte nor for the subject of LRT as a generalization.  While only a handful of, say, some 35 major transit districts have experienced increase in ridership overall, there are several factors that collectively play into sway either way.

One of them is the mounting use of ride-sharing, an alternative already quickly zoomed in popularity, even in medium-sized cities which have been served relatively recently.  It also is of no surprise that the U.S. rate of private ownership of vehicles is one of the highest in the world, along with fluctuating prices of often cheap gas and relatively ample parking, both of which contribute to the perceived advantages of private car use.  Ride-sharing actually has contributed somewhat measurably to increases in traffic congestion and tends to undermine use of mass public transport.   Below the radar of public awareness or even concern, Uber's business model is its wealthy capital funding to subsidize fares and flood streets with cars, in order to grab market share and eventually market pricing power, negatively affecting not only taxi networks and other ride-sharing companies, but also public transport.

Its use reinforces and in some ways arguably worsens existing racially and socially discriminatory patterns in transport systems.   According to Governing Magazine, a publication rather objective in its statistical analyses, "in nearly all urban areas, data indicates public transportation commuters tend to be disproportionately poorer than those driving to work." This primary sector also tend to be disproportionately people of color, and any new policy or technology that impacts public transportation always results in a vastly disproportionate impact on minority- and both service- and working-class communities.  These sectors tend to depend far more on public transport, for reasons obviously reflected in the affordability of public transport for generally much lower incomes.

As a prime example of the impact of ride-sharing on larger public transport systems, one study from the U Cal. Transportation Center found that nearly half of respondents said that if a ride-sharing service hadn't been available, they would have taken a bus, train, bike, or simply walked.  In another study, if ride-share users did not have that option, well over half of their trips either would have been done via mass transit, bike, or foot, or they wouldn't have been made at all.  Still another study found that ridership declined significantly on the Bay Area's (BART) SFO airport extension, as Uber and Lyft saw their ridership to the airport rise almost six-fold.   The ridership decline led to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, the regional mass transit system) revenue falling under budget for the year 2017 by nearly $4 million.   I recall having to take a city bus (San Mateo Transit [SamTrans]) from the airport to Daly City in order to take BART to East Bay (Oakland) back in Nov. 1987, a rather awkward intermodal trek at best.  It took San Francisco over 10 years to garner the billions in state and federal funding to extend this line from Daly City to the airport, and in the recent 5 years that usage of that extension has measurably dropped, and examinations revealed that the biggest factor of this decline has been ride-sharing.

I can say  that few cities have managed to buck the trend and to spur continually increased ridership.  As I said in one of my first posts back in 2013, it takes something to get something else, and cities where more people are choosing to ride transit have made significant investments in transit over time.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Nashville-Davidson historically have not come even close to doing so, even with respect to the percentages of resources as invested by Seattle-King Cnty, for example.  Surprisingly, even Houston-Harris, a recent bastion of a car-centric city with no advanced-capacity transit, has managed to stave off a drop in ridership with its MetroRail and bus system.  As with Houston, spending resources on transit has meant the importance of spending them well strategically, by emphasizing the whole system, not just improving or adding one route at a time, not for LRT alone but also for the network of bus routes, their equipment, and their integration within the respective network.

Again, that almost always has meant that a city already has to have a decent basis in place, in order to build on that base and buck the trend from unintended consequences of policy-making.  Light rail in itself is not a transit killer, and CAT's LYNX Blue Line, as it currently exists, does not well serve a very high percentage of local transit patronage.   A single line based on the constraint of a repurposed railroad RoW, along with some additional trackage, rarely can be expected to benefit an entire city, but that very well could change in 20 years, if Charlotte  can infuse a "favorable" mix of resources to attain its long-range planned network goals, before other yet-unknown elements evolve, beyond these currently augmenting to full-force counter-transit.

I'm also not bashing ride-sharing.  With an aging parent and with no friends locally to shuttle me to and from the airport, I have chosen to use ride-sharing, as an alternative to costly airport parking and to the wrestling with bulky luggage often too unwieldy for me at my age to handle into and out of city buses.

Edited December 4, 2018 by rookzie