Quote:
Originally Posted by Jdawgboy
Wow, what a waste to spend all that money and effort to make a neat bus stop but if it's not really gonna be used then what was the point of it? They should have just left it a regular simple stop.
|
It will be used. The CapMetro changes are an _upgrade_ to the bus service, not a downgrade. An even larger upgrade is proposed, if/when the 20 route becomes the 820 metrorapid.
Ben Wear is being dense again. "No one will ride it because it'll be too slow" is basically a Yoga-Berra-ism.
If "no one" rides it, it'll be _faster_ than the current flyer.
There's several factors that lead to a bus being slow.
1) Congestion and traffic on Austin roads.
2) The double whammy of when 1 doesn't happen, but now the bus is running ahead of the posted schedule so it just stops for 5-10 minutes to "catch up".
3) stopping/boarding time
1 affects both the old and the new route. The riverside corridor improvements have the potential to improve this in the future, as does a 820 metrorapid potentially having signal integration (though this hasn't really panned out with the existing metrorapids).
2 is a big improvement with the new high frequency routes. You (as a rider) are no longer penalized for light traffic. The bus no longer has to stop to align with a timetable.
3 comes into play only to the extent that people are actually boarding/departing. If no one is waiting at a stop and no one pulls the cord, the bus doesn't stop (they don't operate like a subway).
So if "no one" rides, at the worst case it's no slower than before, probably faster. And much more convenient (higher frequency).
But realistically, the line will see usage. So any speed decrease from stops has to be judged against the utility of those stops, which is huge. And remember, the usage is spread across twice as many trips (higher frequency) which works to reduce the number of stops/boardings an individual run sees.
The new line is a one-seat ride to the airport from Mueller and Manor road.
The new line is now an easier transfer from the South Congress metrorapid (you can transfer on Riverside directly).
It's an easier transfer from the 803 metrorapid (transfer at a station instead of walking from Guadalupe/Lavaca to Congress).
And many of the other stops are potential transfers from the rest of the system.
Overall it integrates into the system better. It better serves the true majority consumer of transit to the airport, which is airport employees.
Now, will this new stop cause 600k worth of new riders. No. but it wasn't intended to. It's an art project/city advertising project, not a transit project. It's like all the other guitars you see inside the airport.