The years of Covid-19 have been stressful all of us, but we’ve stayed busy, mostly completing bus network redesign plans and starting new ones. We’ve been especially focused on helping agencies deal with the sudden uncertainty caused by the pandemic, and to make plans that show a path to a better network on the other side. Meanwhile, Jarrett Walker’s writing, in Bloomberg Citylab and other venues, has focused on sustaining the case for fixed route service both during the crisis and beyond it.
We’re proud of our leading role in bus network redesign. Our redesigns for Cleveland and Dallas are both implemented and doing well, and our Dublin network is beginning implementation. We are now in the midst of similar projects in Atlanta, Madison, Norfolk, Columbia, and Suffolk County on New York’s Long Island, as well as Cork, Galway, and Limerick in Ireland. We continue to be proud of our work in many smaller communities.
Here are some of our most recent highlights!
Bus Network Design
Dallas
Our network redesign for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) went into effect on January 24, 2022. It’s going well so far.
Dublin
The National Transport Authority of Ireland (NTA) hired us back in 2016 to lead a complete redesign of the bus network across Ireland’s capital. Our work finished in 2019 and the first three phases have now been implemented. The project is part of the larger BusConnects effort, which includes parallel work addressing bus infrastructure. More here.
Miami
The Better Buses project in Miami is unusual in that the client was a well respected advocacy group Transit Alliance, which raised much of the funding for the work and took the lead in presenting and consensus-building locally, with Miami-Dade Transit as active partners. Our network design study took the community through thinking about alternatives, and then developed a draft network plan. You can learn more about the project at Transit Alliance’s website here. Our reports can be downloaded here.—
Other Recent and Current Projects
Bus network design isn’t all we do, and we have been branching out. We are doing more long-range planning, including the Tucson Long Range Transit Plan last year. We’re helping universities and private companies think about transit and working on corridor-level bus-priority studies. Some of these projects include:
Princeton University Mobility Plan
We’re currently working with Princeton University analyze their campus’ mobility needs, and think through how transit, walking, and bikeshare can play complementary roles in helping people get to and around campus.
Portland Rose Lane Project
In our own hometown, we’re working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on the Rose Lanes Project- the first citywide effort to study potential transit speed and reliability improvements in the city. The initial concepts for a network of transit priority lanes throughout the city were presented in December 2019 and using our analysis, city staff are currently refining the design of these transit priority measures and will bring this to project to city council early this year. See more on PBOT’s project website here.