The speed myth

Why speed is not the key to getting more people riding transit

David Engwicht

One of the popular myths about public transit is that people will only use transit if it is time competitive with the private car. Debunking this myth leads to a whole new view of how we may promote public transport.

This assumption about time competitiveness has convinced many cities to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on transit ways or bus-only lanes. (For the record, I agree with taking existing lanes and turning them into transit-only lanes, but I believe investing millions of dollars to create additional lanes or new corridors is often counterproductive or not the best way to invest the money.) These cities are hell-bent on beating the private car in the one area that will always be hard for public transport to win over the car - door to door total travel time. While it may be important to make some transit services as quick as possible, public transport needs to find an alternative value base on which to promote itself - one which the car can not compete with.

My own thinking on this developed when Brisbane City Council (Australia) decided to build a transit lane through our community by widening a two lane road into four lanes. This $25 million investment will get some people to work about 4 minutes quicker. The city argues that this is the best way to get people out of their cars into public transport. But is it?

At first I took the classic 'resource management approach' by asking: "In what other ways could the $25 million be spent to encourage people to use the bus instead of driving?"
Just one idea I came up with was to put a bucket in the front of all buses and get patrons to put their name and address on the back of their ticket and deposit it in the bucket. Once a year there is a lucky draw and someone gets to win a million dollars. A sign on the back of the bus reads, 'Future millionaires ride here'. The program could run for the next 25 years (or forever if the money was invested) and I am reasonably confident it would attract more new patrons than offering them a four minute time saving.

Or consider the fact that late at night on this route it is an hour between services. Patrons save 4 minutes getting to work, but if they have to work back, they have to wait up to an hour to get home. By putting on a few extra services at night (which would cost significantly less than $25 million) we could save patrons 30 minutes. (Would you rather get to work quicker or get home from work quicker?)

Or consider how effective it might be to use this money to replace the fare-box and provide free public transport in this corridor.
But then I took another classic technique for creating innovative solutions: ask the counter-intuitive question. Because it is popular wisdom that we must make transit go faster to get more patrons, I asked myself; 'Can we attract more patrons by making the bus go slower?' This lead to another question; 'What could make the bus journey so pleasurable that patrons ask the driver to slow down so they don't miss any of the experience?' Maybe having a bookcase in the back of the bus? Regular bus patrons could even order books that would be supplied by the city library. Alternatively, the books may be waiting at the bus stop so they have something to read while waiting.

While this does not require us to slow the public transport to attract patrons, it leads us to a new approach that increases the value people get from transit - the delivering of non-transport related benefits. It is extremely difficult (if not impossible) for transit to compete with the private car on time benefits. So transit must carve out another niche - one in which the private car finds it difficult or impossible to compete. These non-transport benefits may include:
Access to information both at the transit stop and on transit
— newspapers, news, internet access
— what's on in town (the entertainment information bus)
— community notice boards
— books, educational courses (get your degree on the bus)

Business transactions
— bill paying service
— concierge at all transit stops where you can leave your dry cleaning, shoes for repair or have your home deliveries left (cart for taking it home part of service)

Social and cultural interactions
— buskers on transit
— seats facing each other on the transit and at bus stop to encourage conversation
— loose seats at transit stop so you can sit how you want to sit
— transit stops that feel like a small lounge room
— a special seat on transit reserved for 'eccentrics'
— fancy dress days on transit once a month (dress up according to a certain theme and get a weeks transit pass)

Personal improvement
— get your exercise walking to the bus, while waiting for the bus and on the bus
— educate yourself

Greater connection to street life
— larger windows
— an open section where patrons can sit or stand in the open
— a gentler speed (the three above is why trams are more popular than buses)
— art, seating and sculptures on the most walked paths leading to transit stops.