No more squinting to see the bus schedule, if a proposal from a Metro study is approved.
A transit agency report calls for increasing the tiny four-point type of bus schedules posted at Metrobus stops to 12-point text (which is bigger than the nine-point size of these printed words).
The study also calls for a “You are here” icon with estimates of when the bus will arrive at the next four stops. And it recommends coordinating the signs with the region’s public bus services to make stops less confusing.
The recommendations come as Metro tries to improve its bus system, which is fighting a reputation of being confusing and unreliable. Typically one of every four buses does not arrive on time. But the system needs to persuade more of its riders to take buses because eventually the popular rail system will reach its capacity.
In the meantime, the bus signs may exacerbate riders’ frustration: Some stops have timetables with shrunken text showing all the times the buses run, while others have signs only saying which routes service the stop. The regional network of bus systems creates what the report calls “a confusing array of flags, schedule displays and other information.”
Metro began studying bus stops in July after customers told the agency they want clearer information, Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said. The study looked at transit agencies in Seattle, New York and Portland, Ore., to determine the best approach.
The agency found that some of its stops cannot fit the entire bus schedules for multiple routes. It also said outside contractors post the information, which the report said provides “no incentive for contractors to update or improve” the information.
The study cost $113,000, and Metro officials estimate it would cost more than $1 million to upgrade the signs. But no money has been set aside for it, Smith said.
Some transit systems, though, are solving the problem a different way by doing away with printed timetables. Los Angeles runs its buses at least every 12 minutes, while D.C.’s Circulator runs on a 10-minute schedule.
Washington’s Metro is starting to improve information for riders. In July it plans to restart the Next Bus system that will use GPS data from each bus to track when it is headed to a given stop. Riders can key a code specific to each stop into a Web site or interactive phone system to learn when the next bus will arrive.
But to give each stop a unique code, Metro is posting yet another sign at each stop.
