2018: Year of the Bus Reboot?
City bus networks across the country are expected to experiment with a buffet of service tweaks next year aimed at improving the transit experience and growing ridership.
Officials from both the public and private sector assert a willingness by transit agencies to look to technology and the changing ways Americans get around as jumping-off points to transition a service that has remained largely unchanged from its fixed routes and fares since being launched more than a half century ago.
“The problem with buses is that they have not always kept up with changing demographics and demand patterns,” said Johan Herrlin, CEO of Ito World, a London-based transit technology provider with numerous clients in the United States.
Seeing 2018 as the year “the bus will get its own reboot,” Herrlin predicts next year will be “a big year for the humble bus,” as transit agencies try new approaches like more fluid demand-based scheduling and route assignments to stymie the loss of riders. Bus ridership fell 4.1 percent in 2016, and was down 4.6 percent for the first nine months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
A number of agencies have begun experimenting with “pseudo-scheduled” service where bus routes and times are adjusted to attract the highest number of riders, similar to Ford’s Chariot service in San Francisco. Other agencies, such as the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, are loading up on technology to give riders better real-time data related to bus arrivals.
“The system responds to changing variables to keep riders informed of schedule changes and arrival times, and information is shared on digital signage at all bus and train stations and on the vehicles themselves,” said Kyle Connor, transportation Industry principal at Cisco.