Hiawatha Doing Well and Suggestions For Madison Metro

While Gov. Walker's union busting is front and center these days, I was reminded today of how he 86'd making Madison a terminus on Amtrak's Hiawatha line. According to the Wisconsin DoT, the Hiawatha did very well last year with nearly 793,000 riders, a nearly 7% increase over 2009. Perhaps my stepkids will see the day when Wisconsin gets high-speed rail.

To see what we're going to miss, here's a video a 14-year old kid took of his trip from Chicago to Milwaukee on the Hiawatha.



Republicans here in Wisconsin are going after RTAs and the budget bill would eliminate lots of funding for Madison Metro so I've been thinking about what the future of bus service here in Madison holds. I stumbled on this article about how the buses in Seoul are being painted to reflect where they go.

Blue buses travel long distances on major arterial roads, serving more than 2 districts, and run in median bus lanes when they get close to the centre of the city (this video shows a blue bus entering a separated median lane). Green buses operate as feeder buses to the 8 lines on the subway system and are run by private companies. Red buses are express routes with limited stops connecting major suburban towns to the central city. And yellow buses are circular routes that travel between the major destinations in the central city.

This got me thinking about Madison's buses. No, I don't think a color-coding scheme would be appropriate here but the article also mentions a couple other bits that were interesting.

But the addition of a route numbering system that actually has explicit meaning is something every transit system should adopt. First they divided Seoul into 8 numbered zones, starting at 0 in the downtown core and giving the surrounding zones numbers 1 through 7.

Then they used these zones as part of the route numbers. Blue buses have three-digit route numbers. The first number indicates the origin zone and the second number the destination zone, with the last number the bus ID number. So if you encounter bus #048, for example, you know it travels from downtown (zone 0) to zone 4. Red buses put a 9 in front to indicate that these are suburban routes, while yellow buses have only two numbers, since they stay within the same zone.

Is there a method to the madness of Metro's system of assigning numbers to bus routes? If there is, it must be something like north to south routes are multiples of a prime number or something like that. Well, I do see at least some. Routes in the 80s are campus circulators while those in the 70s go to Middleton. Some other numbers more or less cluster around a transfer point as a terminus. But if you look at a ride guide, well over half the pages are devoted to routes 1-39. Can a numbering system be put in place which gives the rider some idea of where the bus goes?

Another neat thing they do with buses is this:





That sign on the side lists major destinations. I think this would be helpful. Many people ask if a bus goes to the Square or not and this would answer their question quickly. Does it go to East Towne Mall? Well, that would be right on the side of the bus for you to read as it approaches. And I'll repeat what I have written previously: Metro buses should have a map posted inside showing the entire route and listing major streets and destinations.

Speaking of bus numbers, why can't Madison Metro simplify things by not switching route numbers on weekends? Take bus number 3. On weekends it becomes 7. It runs essentially the same route so why confuse things with a different number?

A couple other gripes.

Last weekend I need to get from downtown to the High Noon Saloon so I needed a #6 bus. I was surprised to find that this route runs only once an hour on weekends. This is the only bus in the whole system that services the entirety of East Washington. At least during the week there are other buses that run between the Square and Milwaukee Street but on weekends the 6 is basically all you have. Why such poor frequency?

Lastly I'll say that I wish buses ran a bit later on Fridays and Saturdays. The Wisconsin Film Festival is coming up and I've got tickets for some shows that run late making it impossible or nearly so for me to catch a bus home afterwards. Part of the problem is that Metro considers Saturdays to be a lazy day when people don't do anything and so they pare services down. Now I can understand Sundays and holidays having pretty abbreviated service but why Saturday? Sure, you can adjust the schedule to reflect a lack of rush hours but it's a big shopping day and a day when lots of people go out for entertainment which includes staying out late. So why is it treated like a Sunday?

Of course, it's unlikely much is going to happen to bus service here in Madison for years besides fares increasing and service cuts. In the meantime, join the Madison Area Bus Advocates to prepare for a more public transit-friendly future.