[Durham INC] Bull City Connector

Tue Jun 7 11:12:25 EDT 2011

All,

One of the many benefits of passing the proposed sales tax for transit referendum is dedicated funding for not only real time arrival times for buses (not just the BCC) but increased head times along with more options for getting from one place to another without getting in your car.  This means more buses, improved BBC service (read dedicated funding for the future),  future light and commuter rail connecting the Triangle with points beyond and less dependance on foreign oil!

While the advocates of the referendum fully realize that not everyone will take advantage of these mass transit improvements,  we hope that everyone will benefit in one way or another by the simple fact that providing convenient and timely options for alternatives in getting around the Triangle is something that residents will approve of AND vote for.

Mike Shiflett

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: chloe palenchar 
  To: ed.harrison at mindspring.com ; ksdavis at gmail.com 
  Cc: inc-list at durhaminc.org ; gronberg at heraldsun.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 9:41 AM
  Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Bull City Connector

  Not only do many people not have smart phones, but just knowing how late your bus is going to be only solves part of the problem. Yes it can help a person not have to stand around anxiously waiting for a bus. But, it doesn't help people be able to make plans in advance for when they'd like to get somewhere.

  I used to ride TTA between Raleigh and Durham. I quit riding shortly after I bought a car (this was about 5 years ago now). Yes- improving my commute time to 1 hour to 30 minutes was part of my motivation. But, much more of my motivation was highly unpredictable schedules- particularly leaving RTP in the evening. The other issue was the low frequency of run times outside of the rush hours.

  I also used to ride buses in Seattle and you can practically set your watch by those busses. They are not dealing with any less significant traffic problems than we are here in the Triangle. (There are only two, very overcrowded bridges that connect Seattle to the Eastside where I was commuting from.) I have to assume the difference is that they have done a much better job of gathering data on their real arrival times, and base their expected stop times on something they are highly confident they can achieve.

  From the sounds of it, maybe the BCC should move to 20 minute intervals and improve their on time performance.

  -chloe

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: ed.harrison at mindspring.com
  To: ksdavis at gmail.com
  Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 09:01:37 -0400
  CC: inc-list at durhaminc.org; gronberg at heraldsun.com
  Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Bull City Connector

  I forwarded the email from Ken Gasch to the TTA Board of Trustees and "senior management." 

  Two trustees proposed solutions that involved use of smart phones, as best as I could tell. While a large number of people reading this email
  may have smart phones, this may not be the case for Central Durham residents likely to ride buses. 

  The issue of on-time operations may come up in a TTA committee meeting an hour from now.

  I recommend that folks convey concerns on DATA performance to Durham council members, especially the Mayor. 

  Ed Harrison

  On Jun 7, 2011, at 8:55 AM, Kevin Davis wrote:

    Ditto.  Last night I decided to get some refrigerated items from Whole Foods, counting on the bus leaving Duke at 9:20pm to pick me up at the Ninth St. stop going eastbound.  At 9:20 or so there were still passengers waiting to go westbound from in front of Whole Foods; that bus was running late.  

    We're not the first people to complain about this.  I had presumed getting Triangle Transit involved in the operation would have meant better on-time performance against the schedule....

    --
    Kevin Davis
    ksdavis at gmail.com
    www.bullcityrising.com
    (919) 323-8432

    On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 7:11 AM, Ken Gasch <Ken at kengasch.com> wrote:

      I don't know how to get other people to ride. I do know that we would ride it a lot more if it was on time. Just last Friday night, my family waited 11 minutes past the posted arrival time for a stop and just decided to walk in the end. We then walked the route for 5 blocks and never saw it. When it runs on time, we will ride it.

      printFree bus ridership falling short
      06.05.11 - 11:05 pm
      By Ray Gronberg

      gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648

      DURHAM -- Ridership on the Durham Area Transit Authority's downtown-to-Duke free shuttle service has settled into a weekday average in the 1,400-to-1,500 range, short of the expectations backers had for it going in.

      The numbers have Durham officials looking for ways to better market the Bull City Connector, particularly to folks at Duke University and to people who visit downtown on nights and weekends.

      "The positive is that [the average count] appears to be very stable," city Transportation Director Mark Ahrendsen said. "Our charge is to try to make more people aware of how they can use the service."

      Officials launched the connector -- which links Duke, downtown and the Golden Belt business center -- last August with heavy fanfare.

      The idea is that riders can count on seeing one of the cantaloupe-colored buses pass any given stop along the Main Street corridor every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes nights and Saturdays.

      Grant money, subsidies from Duke University and revenue from vehicle-registration fees are helping pay the shuttle's annual operating expenses.

      When they launched it last August, officials said they were hoping the connector would be serving 1,125 riders a day after a month, 1,575 riders a day after six months and 2,035 riders a day after a year.

      Ridership growth met the one-month target, but it fell short of the six-month mark and as of mid-May wasn't on track to hit the one-year goal.

      The average boarding counts grew steadily from the connector's Aug. 16 launch until just before Thanksgiving, when they slumped. The numbers stayed down through the holidays, only beginning to climb again after the start of the new year.

      But it took until late January and early February for the average to make up for the lost ground. Since then, it's held fairly steady around the 1,400-a-day mark, though the general trend remains modestly upward.

      From talking to riders, it seems clear that there's a disconnect between general awareness that DATA operates the connector and specific knowledge of how the shuttle works, Durham Public Affairs Director Beverly Thompson said.

      "There are some people who don't know it's free, they don't know what the schedules are, or where it takes them exactly," she said. "People know there's a Bull City Connector, but they're not sure what it does or what the service is. We have to figure out how to bridge that."

      Saturday ridership is more prone to fluctuations than the weekday average, but usually runs somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the weekday count. Ahrendsen said the Saturday highs tend to coincide with special events at Duke and in downtown.

      The single-day peak for boardings on the connector came on April 14, a Thursday, when drivers reported serving 1,892 riders.

      The spring run-up in gasoline prices didn't seem to have any drastic impact on the numbers, at least none clearly different from the changes that came after the holidays as people got back into their normal routines.

      Other transit providers in the area, Triangle Transit most notably, have reported increases in ridership this spring that they think were a response to the rise in gas prices.

      The ridership numbers were current as of May 14. Ahrendsen's staff keeps track of the counts and from time to time forwards a spreadsheet containing them to higher-ups in city government.

      The connector all told had served 267,490 riders from Aug. 16 to May 14.

      Ahrendsen said officials "are comfortable with the service in how it's currently provided," meaning that they think its routing and schedule are right.

      City officials are convinced they can secure more riders among Duke faculty, staff and students, in part because parking on campus is both limited and costly. They also think their counterparts at Duke will help with marketing because the school long-term would like to avoid the costs associated with building more parking decks.

      The shuttle helps link the campus to Duke operations based downtown.

      The other growth opportunity city officials see is in convincing more residents and visitors to Durham to use the service to get to restaurants, clubs and other social hotspots downtown.

      Thompson said her staff will work with officials at Duke and Triangle Transit to plan the revised marketing effort. They hope to have a plan together in a month, so they can be ready when most students at Duke and N.C. Central University return in August.
      © heraldsun.com 2011
      Ken Gasch
      REALTOR, Seagroves Realty
      Contractor, TurnLight Partners, Ltd.
      C: 919.475.8866
      F: 866.229.4267
      www.KenGasch.com
      Follow my latest restoration at http://wheelerhouse.blogspot.com/

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