Re: Bus Privatization

["Tim Kynerd" <tim@tram.nu>]

"Magnus Homann" <d0asta@licia.dtek.chalmers.se> skrev i meddelandet
ltitphyb81.fsf@licia.dtek.chalmers.se">news:ltitphyb81.fsf@licia.dtek.chalmers.se...
> Vaughan Williams <ender2000@my-deja.com> writes:
>
> > > The catch is that people don't like to transfer. A direct bus is more
> > > valuable than a bus and transfer to rail.
> >
> > They don't seem to mind if you make it easy for them. This is one of
> > the (to my knowledge) unique features in Toronto, though a few other
> > places seem to have copied it. They go to a lot of trouble to make it
> > easy to transfer. This means keeping walking distances very short at
> > interchanges, having buses and trams stop on both sides of busy or wide
> > intersections (so that transferring passengers don't have to cross the
> > road), and at stations where buses feed the train, having the bus pull
> > right into the station, not 100 metres away across the car park.
> > Toronto designed their stations for the bus to pull up inside the fare
> > paid area so that transferring passengers dont even need to show
> > tickets.
>
> This is not unique. Here we also have synched transfers, such that the
> bus waits for the train, and sometimes buses waiting for other buses.

The unique part is not the synchronized transfers, but the fact that
buses go into the paid area of rail stations, eliminating the need to
show tickets a second time.  It works the other way, too; when
transferring from rail to bus, you're allowed to board through all doors
with no need to show tickets.

>
> However, most people prefer a direct connection, and they had to
> re-instate some direct buses that had been removed previously.

I don't think you can generalize about what "most people prefer."
People's preferences vary.  Some people are willing to transfer in
order to gain a faster trip, others would prefer to sit tight even
if it takes longer.

>
> The tram system is also being re-worked and expanded, so as to
> minimize transfers. The goals i max one transfer, whereever you are
> going.

That's a very sensible goal.  Most people are OK with one transfer,
even if they would prefer a one-seat ride, but as the number of
transfers rises, their resistance to taking transit increases.

--
Tim Kynerd    Sundbyberg, Sweden    tim@tram.nu
"But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much.
That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the
right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
-- West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)