Stuck in a snow bank while driving home from the gym, my thoughts immediately went to an idea that I've been bouncing around for quite some time; there has to be a better way to get around during the winter.
Waking up extra early to shovel and clean off cars, hoping the plows have come by but at the same time hoping the end of the driveway isn't covered in the heavy snow they leave behind. Why do we see driving as such a convenience in this weather? This has been a question I've asked myself for years and have yet to come up with a satisfying answer. I routinely come back around to the solution: We need to invest more in public transit.
This may be counter intuitive to most people. Why would I want to add time to my commute when I can just drive myself? Why would you want to wait for a bus in the cold and snow? Public transit doesn't bring me to my exact destination, why would I take it? These are valid questions to ask and there are answers to each of them:
Invest in bus rapid transit (BRT) to improve service times and cut down on time between buses (10-15 minutes max), helping compete with commuting individually.
Create transit maps that are easy to understand, color coding lines.
Institute monthly transit passes, encouraging riders to use the system often without worry of paying more.
Bus shelters with heating systems can help make the wait easier, along with digital countdowns to the next bus.
Partner with autonomous vehicle companies in creating a micro-transit system between bus lines to deliver passengers to their final destinations.
I have previously written about using the I-81 decision in Syracuse as a chance to reevaluate our public transit systems, and that must start with a blank slate. Centro should take a fresh look at population and job centers throughout the city and come up with a plan that serves the most amount of people in the most efficient manner. This should lead to simplifying routes and focusing on providing excellent service along those corridors. The current wheel and spoke service style radiating out of Downtown is insufficient. A more grid-like structure may serve the community better as it would provide more transfer points, cutting down commute times.
While evaluating routes, Centro should focus on creating BRT routes through the city. Past studies have identified two corridors that would benefit most from a BRT system (Eastwood to OCC, Destiny USA to the Syracuse University hill), but they may find a couple more that could be beneficial.
These BRT routes should have designated bus lanes, possibly separated by a median, allowing for buses to travel removed from traffic, along with censors controlling street lights. This would create a system more similar to light rail, providing efficient service for a fraction of the cost. To speed up loading and unloading, fares should be collected before entering a separate covered boarding area (much like subway systems work). All of these investments will allow BRT to create an efficient system.
The key to the success of these routes in winter will come down to policy. For this we can take cues from Copenhagen. During the winter months, the city prioritizes clearing bike paths and bus lanes first before they touch the rest of the city streets. They prioritize transportation methods that move the most amount of people most efficiently. In Syracuse this would mean plowing these newly created bus lanes before the rest of the streets.
All of this efficiency would be wasted if the system is not easy and comfortable to use, especially in winter. There are a few simple solutions to these problems. First is the importance of ease of use. Bus maps should make use of color coding, much like subway systems do. With the simplified bus lines, the map should be easy to identify transfer points. These maps should be posted at every bus stop, which should all have enclosures.
In the long run there should be fewer bus stops, but every bus stop should have an enclosure with a heating system. This would allow passengers to wait in the warmth away from dangerous winds. While going to school at the Rochester Institute of Technology, our main bus stops all had simple heating systems that could be turned on by any passenger waiting. It would last for about 5 minutes before turning off automatically. Such a system could be applied to bus stops throughout the city, especially along the BRT routes.
At each of these stops, there should be countdown clocks for the next bus. The hardest part of waiting for any form of public transit is not knowing for sure when they are arriving. Without a countdown, even 5 minutes feels like an eternity.
All of these work together to help make using public transit easier and more pleasant, but the last suggestion is the easiest to implement; monthly Centro cards. For one flat rate, passengers should be able to use the system as often as they wish. This would encourage people to use transit often because they would want to get the best deal they can. It allows people to budget their transit as well. With one flat rate, you can add that to your monthly finances just as you would rent or a mortgage, and have the peace of mind that you don't need to worry about having enough cash on you for a ride home at night.
If all of this is invested in and is successful, it still does not solve the problem of not delivering you from door-to-door. This is where some real innovation comes in. In recent weeks companies like Toyota have given us previews of autonomous minibuses with the idea that they could be used for ride hailing purposes. Instead, they should be incorporated into public transit systems to solve the door-to-door issue.
The system could work like this: Using a newly created Centro app, you put in a destination much like you would on Uber and Lyft, but instead the autonomous minibus comes to pick you up. It is assigned to your nearest transit station, so anyone within that zone will be delivered along with you to the stop. You jump on BRT and travel most of the way to your destination. When you arrive, minibuses are waiting to deliver you and the other passengers to your final destination.
Now this last part may be a years away before its viable, but we should be planning for the future and how to incorporate these new technologies. Public transit should be taking cues from ride hailing apps and make itself easier to use and more appealing.
All of these solutions circle back to the original problem of how to make the winter easier to overcome. One issue that plows have in winter is attempting to avoid cars parked on the streets, narrowing their paths. At the same time, those cars get buried beneath the snow being plowed, making them harder to move in the end. Its a vicious cycle that results in streets not being cleared, cars getting stranded and making commutes more dangerous for everyone. That's one reason we see such an increase in accidents and injuries on the roadways during the winter, along with incidents with pedestrians who are forced into the streets.
With an improved mass transit system that competes with private car ownership in convenience, and bests it in cost, you can begin to convince people to give up their cars. With fewer cars on the streets, they can be cleared much faster, while also allowing people to avoid the less than ideal task of clearing off cars and digging them out. It would keep people safer.
If we begin to plan and implement bold ideas on transit, businesses and workers will notice. The type of workers cities want to attract are pouring into cities that have invested in public transit and are forward thinking about development. Businesses want to locate in these cities because they see a commitment to their citizens and their needs. The economic corridors along the transit lines would attract investment as they see a stability in these centers, resulting in density and walkability. This creates a positive cycle that leads to more investment.
Its time to plan big and overcome the frozen state of our city.