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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

HOP, SKIP, and JUMP aboard a Boulder Bus

by Clarence Eckerson, Jr. on October 14, 2008

Time: 6:21 Plays: 8,750 Embed:

Welcome to an innovative way of thinking about transit: ask your passengers to design routes, let them name them, and decide the frequency in which they operate. That's what Boulder, Colorado does and they sure seem to have discovered the right way to make bus riding fun and enticing!

Boulder boasts seven high-frequency bus lines with catchy, character-verb names like: STAMPEDE, DASH, BOUND, and BOLT, with all of the buses having their own color scheme and identity. It all started back in 1989 when Boulder endeavored to provide a real alternative to the car for its downtown commuters and as a result gave residents direct input into the process. In addition to creating comfy, frequent, pleasant buses, the city also instituted the Eco Pass, a transit card that allows residents to ride buses system-wide for free - more than doubling transit use between 1995 and 2005, from 15% to 34%.

Not that anyone is asking, but my suggestion for a new bus name: the ZIGZAG. Who wouldn't want to ride that?

6 Comments

Last comment by Evan
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    Galfromdownunder

    I've yet to take a bus, mostly because I ride a folding bike, but partly 'cos I can't work out where they go and when in a hurry!

    I'd base it completely on the famous and fabulous New Yorkistan cover:
    http://www.mairakalman.com/newyorker/newyorker-8nyorkistan.html
    at least people will instantly know where the bus goes.

    A very poor, distant second idea would be to name them where they mainly go ...

    The Skirt - goes to the Garment district
    The Dumpling - goes to Chinatown
    The Canoli - goes to Little Italy
    The Wall - goes to the Financial District
    The Stage - goes to the Theater District
    The Duke - goes to Harlem
    The Yorkie - upper East Side
    The Crawl - Meatpack
    The Sprog - Park Slope
    And there's gotta be a good one for Chelsea

    ... but more than names, I'd really like to see the main stops written on the side of each bus. Like the subway map do.

    October 15, 2008 at 12:45 pm Link # 1
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    Bob Whitson

    Great video--keep up the good work

    October 15, 2008 at 3:35 pm Link # 2
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    Evan Ravitz

    This is false history! Facts from a 30-year resident, voted "Best Activist" by readers of the Boulder Daily Camera: In 1994, voters defeated 2-1 the $250 million Transit Tax, partly BECAUSE they were going to just put more buses on the slow, twisty "spaghetti" bus routes that were running nearly empty. We who defeated it told them to straighten out their routes into a grid pattern. We FORCED them, they DID NOT ASK US! I don't think we named them either. Everyone I know would prefer names like "Broadway Bus" to "Skip" because it runs mostly on Broadway. Etc. People don't ride buses because of the silly names and cool logos, but to get places.

    Boulder is rife with lying, cheating greenwashers. The director of the Trans. Div. then, Phil Weisbach, repeatedly told City Council and others that there was nothing for cyclists in the tax because "Cyclists won't ride more than a mile or two at most." When i showed him that his own reports -done with our money- showed that the AVERAGE bike trip was 1.8 miles and the average bike commute ride was 3.6 miles said "We will continue to assert our opinion" and they did.

    Weiser was given a raise for telling his repeated lies. I kept exposing his lies publicly until he left, but his underlings carry on. God damn them for parasitizing our town and planet! -Evan Ravitz evan at vote dot org

    October 16, 2008 at 1:48 pm Link # 3
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    Cousin Will

    This a is a great film! My cousin sent me this film and she loves taking the bus there.

    I am going to Boulder in 2009 and want to ride all of the buses!

    I saw your movie on Treehugger. There are lots of nice comments over there...

    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/boulder-colorado-bus-public-transit-video.php

    October 16, 2008 at 2:04 pm Link # 4
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    Evan

    Evan, I'm glad to hear of the grid system improvements, congrats on the award and thank you for your action. I'm not a long time resident of boulder(2.5years), so on the Surface, Evan's comments on lying and so forth don't seem to really help current or future situations.

    In modern times, encouraging people to vote NO on anything supporting public transportation may likely be counter progressive and should not be encouraged by somebody in favor of public transportation, and/or enabling people to be out of cars/changing self inflicting Merican habbits.

    I think this video is very good press for the rest of the US to be exposed to. For the future of the US empire, I believe the whole country NEEDS to consider the collective importance of geting Mericans to less frequently use Single Occupancy Passenger Automobiles (SOPA's). The time is NOW, while nation-wide attention(gasoline prices) has finally made a crack in the hard shells of many previously unexposed minds this year. Funding will very soon be allocated on behalf of transportation issues (including CO ammendment 52 I-70 ski traffic/congestion), and all options need to be adequately represented and considered. Since Ammend 52 focuses on building more roads, with no mention of public transport for ski traffic, I will vote no on it. I'll rant on this in another comment.

    October 17, 2008 at 3:38 pm Link # 5
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    Evan

    "Ammendment 52: require the state legislature to spend a portion of state severance tax collections on highway projects."

    "The remaining amount of the state portion must be used to construct and maintain highways, with priority given to relieving congestion on Interstate-70 (I-70)"

    -2008 State Ballot Information Booklet, p21-22

    I am a skiier, though I ski in the Backcountry and always carpool, I often travel I-70 on congested winter weekends. I also travel the same routes after big resorts close, and the difference is significant. I conclude that the root problem of congestion on I-70 is due to recreational traffic from Denver and is at its worst on weekends during the normal ski season.

    By now this is a well known issue to ski vacationers traveling by plane from other states, just watch this youtube video, specifically documenting the differences in the logistics of skiing from Denver vs skiing from Salt Lake City airports. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utwX5zOtMoI Last March I drove a car from Salt Lake City up both cottonwood canyons to ski, and had no noteable congestion issues. Colorado Ski resorts simply must be losing business due to this problem. The state generally is missing potential revenue from the informed/not returning tourists.

    What can be done to remody the I-70 problem, analysis:

    Step 1, identify the differences between Denver and Salt Lake City infrastructure

    1 Salt lake city's ski roads are one-lane highways, not generally serving inter or trans state traffic demands.

    2 Salt Lake City facilitates public transportation from its airport to the major ski resorts

    Step 2, decide which, if any, factors are most easily addressed or changed.

    I'd weigh in that it would be easier and economically more sustainable to invest in peak flow public transportation, and that diverting interstate traffic is an engineering feat that is less feasible. How far do you want to drill a tunnel under the continental divide.

    Simply building more road is an expensive and temporary solution to the I-70 congestion problem. There are many human issues which should be addressed first. If one wants to dispute the importance of the human factor, just look at the difference on-ramp traffic lights have made in I-70 traffic flow this year! Great stuff!

    I acknowledg that there are problems with facilitating public transportation here, but I have some ideas(limited access lane(s)) to account for some of the difficulties with funding, etc. Nowhere in the description of ammendment 52 is there any mention public transportation anywhere along I-70. Am I missing something?

    Until I hear otherwise, I'm voting no on 52.

    October 17, 2008 at 5:32 pm Link # 6