Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Does your transit trip take too long?



Of course, increasing speed and increasing ridership are complicated undertakings with their own flowcharts.

5 comments:

Jonathan said...

Please be aware that hosting your pictures on Google Drive makes the post impossible to read for people like me who are using networks that are blocked from accessing file-sharing services.

neroden@gmail said...

Hmm. For "increase speed":
1 "Does it accelerate quickly out of stations and decelerate quickly into them, and go fast in the middle?"
Yes -> 2
No -> 3
2 "Are there lots of passengers getting on and off at all the intermediate stations?"
Yes -> 6
No -> Operate express service
3 "Is it fast between stations but accelerates and decelerates slowly?"
Yes -> Get trains with better acceleration
No -> 4
4 "Is it slow in some specific sections but not in others?"
Yes -> Speed up those tracks
No -> 5
5 "Are the trains going as fast as they can?"
Yes -> Get faster trains
No -> Speed up all tracks

6 "Are there lots of passengers commuting as far out as you?"
Yes -> Build a new express / bypass line
No -> Move closer to downtown!

neroden@gmail said...

"Increase ridership" is the HARD flowchart. I don't think this one is fully understood by anyone.

neroden@gmail said...

The flowchart would only be different for buses by replacing "train" with "bus" and "track" with "road"

...except that you'd have to add a section about traffic interference from cars.

0. "Is the slowness due to traffic?"
Yes -> "Get exclusive right-of way by painting bus lanes, laying tracks, whatever"
No -> "See Other Flowchart"

Cap'n Transit said...

You got a crazy sysadmin, Jonathan. Can you see the picture if I put it on Picasa Web?