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Dedicated bus lanes in Cleveland: a major success

May 23, 2017 | by Active Trans

Speeding up buses in urban areas and attracting more riders is a difficult task if transit vehicles are constantly stuck in traffic.Cleveland learned this lesson nearly 10 years ago and it continues to reap the benefits.In building a corridor that prioritizes bus traffic with dedicated lanes, Cleveland embraced the reality that buses are moving many more people much more efficiently than cars with one or two passengers. That extra street space is extremely valuable in cities like Cleveland and Chicago. The Euclid Corridor, which connects Cleveland’s two biggest employment centers (downtown Cleveland and University Circle), has always been a center of commerce in the city. In 1993, a task force was set up to find better ways to serve public...

Tags: Bicycling, Education, Planning, Walking

Los Angeles ‘signals’ the way to better bus service

May 22, 2017 | by Active Trans

Chicago should look to the West Coast as it considers investing more to speed up local buses.Seventeen years ago, when Los Angeles County decided to give its buses priority at traffic signals, the buses experienced huge gains in speed and reliability. The county has a massive bus system that accounts for a majority of all public transportation trips.Through surveys and communications with bus riders, the transit agency learned that existing local and limited-stop service was too slow and unreliable. The Metro Rapid service (LA’s limited-stop bus service) sought to address these shortcomings through the introduction of service that would improve operating speeds, reduce passenger wait and dwell times, and broaden service dependability. The most beneficial improvement proved to be traffic signal...

Tags: Advocacy, Education, Planning, Walking

Prepaid, all-door boarding is working in San Francisco

May 17, 2017 | by Active Trans

In 2012, San Francisco’s MUNI transit system implemented a revolutionary concept to America’s bus systems – pre-paid, all-door boarding for all of its street vehicles, including buses and trolleys.Bus riders could now enter through any door of any vehicle at any time and tap their transit card on a reader that’s adjacent to the door to verify payment. Riders who don’t have transit cards could pay their fare before boarding and carry a receipt on board for proof of payment.The goal was to increase bus speeds and reduce bus waiting time at bus stops. As Chicago looks for ways to improve bus service throughout the city, we can look to San Francisco as a strong example. Like all other bus systems...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, Walking

Vision Zero needs more funding to make progress

Mar 27, 2017 | by Active Trans

This week the City of Chicago released more information about its upcoming Vision Zero Action Plan.Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld made the case for Vision Zero in a speech at City Club on Monday.In her comments, she said every traffic death is unacceptable and that we have the tools to stop these senseless tragedies. In addition to the dozen or so city agencies that will be involved in Chicago's Vision Zero effort, she called upon everyone who uses city streets to start thinking about supporting Vision Zero. One key part of the plan is reducing driving speed and encouraging people driving to follow the legal speed limits.The Vision Zero plan identifies driver speed as the most important factor...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

Take our survey — help improve Chicago’s bus service

Feb 20, 2017 | by Active Trans

Bus ridership has been declining significantly over the last several years. Why are fewer people riding the bus? There are many reasons for this decline, but we believe the central problem is that buses are often slow and unreliable. As a result, many are choosing alternative options when it comes to getting around the city.How do you feel about Chicago’s bus service? Share your thoughts by taking our survey.Our new campaign, Speeding Up Chicago’s Buses, seeks to change this downturn by promoting near-term, low-cost bus service improvements to the city’s highest ridership routes. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is working with Active Trans on the project in an advisory capacity, providing data and technical feedback as it moves forward.To help...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Chicago Central, Chicago North Side, Chicago South Side, Chicago West Side, Planning, Walking

Diverse crowds flock to San Bernardino’s BRT line

Dec 13, 2016 | by Active Trans

More cities across the United States are using bus rapid transit to help solve some of the challenges of conventional bus service.Bus rapid transit, or BRT, is an innovative approach that combines off-board payment, dedicated bus lanes, signal clearance priority and improvements to station infrastructure to make riding the bus a more fast, comfortable and reliable option. In Chicago, despite record-setting levels of public transit ridership, use of the city’s bus system continues to decline. Improving bus service along high-use bus corridors would help reverse the trend and give Chicagoans more choices as they decide how to get around. Many cities are already seeing the benefits of high-quality BRT systems. San Bernardino launched their sbX BRT line in 2014 along...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, Walking

Boosting safety with education campaigns

Dec 1, 2016 | by Active Trans

Education is always one of the most talked about topics in traffic safety, and Vision Zero is no different.There’s a perception that if we could just better educate users about how to share the road and travel responsibly, we’d see fewer traffic crashes, serious injuries and fatalities.The reality is public education alone will not solve the problem. The hallmark of a Vision Zero approach to traffic safety is pursuing policy changes in several areas, such as infrastructure, enforcement and commercial vehicle regulation.When done right, cities around the world have shown education can be a powerful tool in traffic safety. Massive public awareness campaigns are exorbitantly expensive and it can be difficult to evaluate their impact. Targeted campaigns that focus on...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Education, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

Kansas City builds on BRT’s legacy of success

Nov 22, 2016 | by Active Trans

While most cities in the Midwest are dominated by the automobile, Kansas City is using Bus Rapid Transit to make its downtown more dense, walkable and accessible.Traditional bus routes provide a critical service but can present challenges to the people who use them. If a bus line has long wait times, restrictive hours, uncomfortable bus stops, and frustratingly slow commutes, taking the bus becomes less appealing. Bus rapid transit, or BRT, tackles each of these problems with innovative and cost-effective solutions such as creating bus-only transit lanes, giving busses signal priority at intersections and constructing more substantial bus stations with seating, protection from the elements, and arrival time boards that take the guesswork out of waiting for the bus. The...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, Walking

Limiting turns could save lives

Nov 8, 2016 | by Active Trans

It’s no secret that the majority of crashes that result in people walking and biking being killed involve turning vehicles. The question is what can be done about it.Recent Chicago crash analysis found 52 percent of pedestrian crashes at signalized intersections involved turning vehicles; 36 percent were left turns and 16 percent were right turns.People biking are more likely to be involved in “right hook” crashes where a person driving passes to the left of a person biking and then makes a right turn. Fifty-five percent of bicycle crashes occur at intersections.Sign our Vision Zero Call to Action to show your support for limiting turns.Twenty-three year-old Anastasia Kondrasheva was killed by the driver of a flatbed truck in a right-hook...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking

Slow down, Chicago!

Oct 26, 2016 | by Active Trans

In traffic safety, the fastest way to save lives, prevent serious injuries and achieve progress on Vision Zero is to get people driving to slow down.Speeding and reckless driving are rampant in Chicago, and excessive speed is the most common factor in serious and fatal crashes. Sign our Vision Zero Call to Action to tell city leaders we need to do more to reduce vehicle speeds.Too many Chicago streets are supersized and thereby encourage drivers to speed. Enforcement is lacking, which results in people frequently driving 10 miles per hour or more above the speed limit, endangering the lives of people inside and outside their vehicles.About 80 percent of the traffic fatalities and injuries in Metro Chicago are people in...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

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