The Goodspeed Update

After I completed my long post about the need for high quality maps and timetables for public bus systems last October, I wasn’t optimistic it would inspire much real-world improvements. Therefore I was surprised to hear a consulting company had implemented one of my suggestions in an interactive website for a California bus system.

After completing my recent analysis of WMATA’s Metrorail fare increase, I decided to do some more research to better put the fares in a national context, finding D.C. Metro riders pay some of the highest subway fares in the nation. I then did a side-by-side comparison with San Francisco’s BART, considered a sister system to the D.C. Metro. The analysis of BART fares from a downtown San Francisco station shows that Bay-area suburban commuters enjoy even cheaper per-mile fares than their D.C. counterparts.

With the D.C. Metrorail’s fares set to increase on Sunday, it piqued my interest in precisely how the system determines charges and the nature of the changes. I decided to take a look at exactly what pattern the famously unpredictable fares took. While most news reports have reported suburban riders would experience the largest absolute increases, my analysis shows they continue to enjoying the lowest cost per mile of all riders, well below the cost of automobile use.

We all know the D.C. Metro is busy. But do you know how many people use your station, or how use has changed since the system opened? Take a look at some of the trends and look up your station using my data on a new social networking site.

Today marks the end of the second week of service of WMATA’s new Metro Extra line on Georgia Avenue. To my knowledge the project is the second Bus Rapid Transit line developed in the region, and the first express bus to operate almost exclusively inside the District.
The service, officially Metro Extra Route 79, currently operates […]