Metropolitan Transit Authority is set to upgrade a pair of Houston bus routes, hoping that raising the quality of bus service will prove the key to increasing transit use.
The 54 Scott and the 56 Montrose/Airline routes will be the first put to the test of as part of Metro’s “Bus Operations Optimized System Treatments” — aka BOOST. The corridors will be decked out with spruced-up bus stops and shelters, bike racks and better sidewalk and trail access where practical. Digital signs at bus stops will give real-time information about when the next bus is coming.
Some of the most striking improvements, however, will be less about what riders can see and more about the technology that will provide buses an advantage by communicating with traffic signals. That could in some locations give the bus extra time to make a changing green light, or hurry through the red-light cycle to decrease the time the bus spends at an intersection.
“Getting through that intersection, if we can hold the green light a little longer, improves our travel time,” Metro CEO Tom Lambert said.
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Less time sitting at stoplights could make transit more attractive.
“What they are trying to do is drive bus ridership,” said Jeff Weatherford, deputy director for Houston Public Works, which is working with Metro along the corridors.
Construction along the corridors is expected to start in the coming months and take 18-to-24 months to complete, transit officials said.
The BOOST corridors are a major component of Metro’s long-range transit plans, the first phase of which voters approved last November, allowing the transit agency to borrow up to $3.5 billion to build $7.5 billion in projects. The remaining money will come from current funds and expected federal contributions, Metro officials said.
The Scott and Airline routes were chosen as the first of 17 BOOST routes because both follow bustling commercial corridors, have high ridership — both typically average around 6,000 daily boardings — and development along the routes is walk-able by Houston standards, officials said. Both lines also cross other core routes in the Metro system, such as the Red and Purple light rail lines and the Route 82 Westheimer, Route 2 Bellaire and Route 4 Beechnut bus lines.
Compared to the $5.3 billion in bus rapid transit and light rail construction Metro plans over the next 20 years, the BOOST corridors are cheap — $179 million for the 17 lines and enhanced service along Westheimer.
Unlike the rail and rapid bus plans, BOOST is less about re-inventing transit in Houston than rebuilding it. Most of the spending is aimed at smaller block-by-block upgrades such as wider sidewalks, bike lanes, accessible and convenient shelters.
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Those sorts of upgrades are exactly what many riders would like to see. Standing by a sun-faded shelter strewn with trash north of Reed Road around noon Friday, Marguerite Jackson, 58, said improvements are needed along the routes — not just at transit centers.
“People will take care of something that they think is being taken care of,” Jackson said, noting that trash piles up at bus stops where the trash is not picked up. “That’s why some people don’t ride the bus. Unless you have to. They aren’t going to get on something that’s dirty.”
Waiting at the same stop about 45 minutes later, Stephen Hall, 55, also cited cleanliness as a concern, but said he would be more excited if buses could move more efficiently.
“If you tell me it’s faster, I say ‘let’s do it,’” Hall said, noting his trip to work along Fuqua requires two lengthy bus trips along busy city streets.
Metro hopes to make trips faster by putting GPS devices or beacons on buses that communicate directly with traffic lights along the route.
“It allows us to take full advantage of what we can do,” said Andrew Skabowski, Metro’s chief operations officer. “It gives you a lot more freedom and a lot more ability.”
The beacons, also used by fire trucks and ambulances, alert so-called smart traffic signals as they approach. The traffic signal recognizes the beacon on the bus and knows which direction it is traveling and how far away it is.
If the light is green and the bus is on pace to arrive, the signal could keep the green active a few seconds longer to allow the bus to pass through.
In the event a bus arrives at a red light, the signal could quicken the cycle so the bus gets a green light a little sooner.
“Both ways, it gets you a little extra green,” Skabowski said.
City traffic managers are working with Metro to see how signal prioritization can work on Houston streets.
“We are working them by an intersection by intersection process,” Skabowski said.
In many cases, giving the bus priority would be too disruptive to other traffic. At major streets, with multiple left turn arrows and constant right turns, it is unlikely a bus could benefit much without disrupting traffic.
“It’s not going to work everywhere, but there are a lot of places where it is going to make a difference,” Weatherford predicted.
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The aim, Lambert said, is to make bus service more attractive to riders, both in comfort and time, and to use Metro’s vehicles more efficiently by reducing the time they wait at bus stops and stoplights.
In some cases, that also will mean a different place to stop. Typically, bus stops are situated prior to major intersections as the bus moves along the street. The thinking at the time is it was safer and better for traffic and riders to stop before big intersections.
What it led to was a lot of delay at red lights, when a bus stopped and then stopped again at the intersection. That slowed not only buses, but the traffic backed up behind it.
By placing the stops past stoplights, perhaps in spots where Metro can carve out a little space to pull away from other traffic, the buses can make better time along the routes and avoid cutting off other drivers.
“Cars behind on the rightmost lane also get through to the signal,” Metro board member Sanjay Ramabhadran said.
Metro officials are hoping the Scott and Montrose/Airline BOOST routes will help the transit agency learn how to build better bus corridors where practical. That will make the other 15 corridors to come built a little faster, transit officials said.
“Once you get these proved out, you can do multiples at a time,” said Metro board member Lisa Castaneda.
dug.begley@chron.com
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Metro to give bus corridors a BOOST, hoping better rides lead to more riders - Houston Chronicle
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