A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

[masstrlk67]

I witnessed a passenger in a wheelchair board the bus yesterday on my first A Line ride. It was the same process and time delay, though at least all the equipment was working smoothly. Hopefully in the future Metro Transit will adopt the same passive restraint system that Seattle uses on its rapid bus system.

Side note: that was also my first time seeing "truck nuts" on a wheelchair. Very amusing since the bus driver had to navigate around them to place the hooks.

[mattaudio]

Wait, no level boarding? Doesn't the Red Line have level boarding?

[jebr]

No level boarding. I don't think it was ever part of the plan. It has "near level" which doesn't feel a whole lot different at the northern stops, but maybe there is a difference.

[intercomnut]

Level boarding adds too much of a time delay, since the buses have to slow down quite a bit and creep into the stop to make sure they don't damage the bus and are close enough to the curb. And even then, they don't always get it right.

Having to do this at every stop would eliminate the time savings gained by not having to deploy the ramp. Plus, having "near-level" boarding makes it much easier for those with disabilities who are not in wheelchairs, such as those with walkers or a cane, to board, which also saves time.

[Silophant]

So it turns out that the southbound University Ave station shelter is aligned with the Spruce Tree Center rain gutter such that, in a heavy rain (like at 7:30pm, for example), the effect is similar to a fire hose blasting right into the shelter and flooding it nearly an inch deep.

Awesome!

[intercomnut]

So it turns out that the southbound University Ave station shelter is aligned with the Spruce Tree Center rain gutter such that, in a heavy rain (like at 7:30pm, for example), the effect is similar to a fire hose blasting right into the shelter and flooding it nearly an inch deep.

Awesome!

You should get in contact with Metro Transit about that.

[Silophant]

I tweeted at them, but I'll send an actual email tomorrow.

[David Greene]

Rapid buses give Twin Cities transit a boost

http://www.startribune.com/rapid-buses- ... 384331021/

[VAStationDude]

http://startribune.com/more-than-120k-r ... 388976701/

A Line ridership is 40% greater than pre abrt 84.

[HiawathaGuy]

http://startribune.com/more-than-120k-r ... 388976701/

A Line ridership is 40% greater than pre abrt 84.

[Mcgizz]

Impressive. Does anyone know how that lines up with goals and predictions?

[MattW]

Incredible to think that a bus that doesn't stop every 1/8th of a mile is popular.

[jebr]

Don't worry, there was a letter to the editor in the Highlander a few weeks ago that complained that the A Line is useless because it doesn't stop every block. Stopping only every few blocks is too fast, and living at warp speed.

On a more critical note (regarding the statistics): how much is the data skewed by those first few days? I'd be more curious to see the ridership numbers excluding those first few days where people are curious about this new bus. I see the statistics are for weekday ridership, which removes the skew from the opening day that would exist, but I'm not sold that the ridership spike is going to stay quite that high over the next few months.

[jebr]

Looks like the northbound Como stop will be moved up to Midway Parkway for the fair.

https://www.metrotransit.org/northbound ... state-fair

It seems that the northbound Snelling/Como station gets closed for major events at the fairgrounds. Would it have cost much more to put the stop directly on Snelling, instead of using the off/on ramps for the stop?

[mulad]

That was something I had suggested in at least one public meeting, but I'm not sure anyone took me seriously. I suppose one issue is that the bridge for Snelling over Como is relatively narrow. Still, I figure access could be done acceptably with stairs and zig-zag ramps, but if it was considered at all, it probably got vetoed due to a presumed need for elevators. Perhaps it can be revisited when Snelling eventually gets rebuilt.

[masstrlk67]

That was something I had suggested in at least one public meeting, but I'm not sure anyone took me seriously. I suppose one issue is that the bridge for Snelling over Como is relatively narrow. Still, I figure access could be done acceptably with stairs and zig-zag ramps, but if it was considered at all, it probably got vetoed due to a presumed need for elevators. Perhaps it can be revisited when Snelling eventually gets rebuilt.

MnDOT is working on a preliminary design for Snelling through the area including the bridges so now would be the time. I don't think this idea (or even much A Line concern at all) came up at the open house last month.

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projec ... lingstudy/

[mulad]

Yeah, I probably should have reiterated that idea to the people there when I went to one of those meetings. The Snelling study is not yet attached to any funding or schedule, though -- it may be years/decades before that really gets implemented.

[talindsay]

So I went to map the route from Grand and Snelling to the University's West Bank using Monday at 2:00 PM as my start time and it's just amazing how hard both Metro Transit and Google try to avoid sending you the obvious route of A Line north to Green Line west. I can't fathom why. I literally never could get Metro Transit's route planner to give me that route, no matter what I tweaked, while Google only finally did it when I said I prefer light rail and fewer transfers - and even then I had to select it from a ways down the dropdown. Both of them really wanted to send me on the 84, or else over on the 63, or even SOUTH on the A Line to the BLUE LINE, even though all but one of those takes longer according to their own schedules, which already assume I miss the first transfer opportunity at Snelling and University.

I can't begin to fathom why they would do that, but my only guesses (which still don't fully explain it) are that they completely discount any benefit to frequent service, assuming that I'll get to the stop at exactly the instant I state and that the first transit vehicle will arrive at exactly the instant it's scheduled; and, countering that very premise, that when making transfers they take into account previous on-time performance as some sort of metric to decide how much of a penalty any specific transfer is. Or thirdly, they both actively avoid any transfer that involves any amount of walking in the transfer itself - the Snelling / University transfer is listed as having 1 minute of walking, while all of the transfers on their idiotic suggested routes involve no walking according to their system because they're literally dropping off and picking up at the same station. Of course, in the real world we know that's not even true, but the system may think it is.

[mulad]

Yeah, I've been getting a little frustrated with Google's routing lately. From what I can tell, their algorithm assumes that buses will be late to drop you off, so it misses opportunities to make tight transfer windows and gives you ones that have a longer (but relatively guaranteed) transfer between routes. On frequent routes, I can sometimes get on a bus 10 minutes earlier than what Google thinks I can catch. The transfer window time really needs to be a setting the user can choose.

As far as I know, Google doesn't get any info from Metro Transit about the timeliness of the routes -- perhaps it would be better if they did get real-time info working, but I don't know if that would make it behave any differently.

[Qhaberl]

I really hope they get Apple Maps transit information from the Twin Cities. They have it for all the other major cities now.