One of the several reasons I had for wanting to move into the city after four years in exile out in the 'burbs was mass transit. I've always liked the idea of being able to get around using some sort of transportation system beyond a car. It just always struck me as a good thing - no hassles with driving, parking or any of the other headaches that are features of driving in a city. Plus, there's the feel-good factor of not using so much gas and other benefits of that sort, if those are the sorts of things you think about. So, because I live right on a major bus route that goes all the way across town through downtown, I take the bus to get to work.
Well, I was going to work yesterday, waiting for the bus..., you know, supporting mass transit, being a good-to-the-earth person and all that, and I stumbled headlong into an idea. See, what happened was that the bus got stuck behind a beer delivery truck that wouldn't move to let us around. Seriously, it was sort of a bad scene... pissed off drivers behind us pounding on the windows of the bus, guys in the back of the bus shouting back at them, the driver of the truck and the bus getting into a brief shouting match. Not good. We were stuck there - I'm not even exaggerating - twenty minutes. When we finally did get through, at the very next stop and elderly woman got on and berated the driver, wanting to know where she'd been and complaining how she was now going to miss her doctors appointment.
At every bus stop there is (or at least, is supposed to be) a comprehensive printed timetable showing the times a bus will be at or near your stop. Handy, right? Seems like you could plan your work day around that pretty reliably. Don't get me wrong - you can, to some degree. The problem comes when you're taking a bus that comes only once every half-hour, or once every twenty minutes. What happens when the bus you're waiting for is 10 minutes late? Or 20? Or, as in the case yesterday, the bus is so late it effectively set the whole line back one set of pickups?
Here's the solution:
City buses are outfitted with GPS transmitters, and displays at all or most of the bus stops within the District would display how far away the next bus actually is. It would be similar to the dynamic platform signs that currently inhabit all Metrorail stations, but smaller, and a lot more of them. That way, if there is a problem with your line and you're aware of it, you might be able to plan ahead by taking another route, hailing a cab or some other alternate plan.
This sounds like a big proposition, and it is. How in the world would you get a city to go for that when it has problems nailing down details of a stadium lease agreement or the conditions under which it would get a brand new research hospital? Well, there are a handful of ways.
Financing from the Federal Government: The Feds are the biggest "users" of city services during the week - hell, maybe just the biggest consumers overall. Seems like they should have a hand in bringing their employees to work, right?
Fat chance. The Feds have never, ever demonstrated any regard for this city as its own institution. DC exists purely as their fattening pen, in their mindset. Getting them to provide any sort of funding for a service that serves precisely none of their constituents (remember, DC has no voting member in Congress) is about as likely as you flipping a coin and having it land on its edge. So we can pretty much count Federal funds out.
Corporate assistance, with Federal incentives: A corporation, eager to get on the Feds' good side, wins a competeive contract and offers to pay for the program and its execution in return for some kind of favorable glint in the Feds' eyes later. While this is, in the strictest terms, a quid pro quo, deals of this essence happen quite frequently in this town, though seldomly to the benefit of District residents.
While it has the benefit of winning the hearts and minds of DC's residents, not to mention that of the Council and Mayor, the town, at least for the moment is steering clear of anything that has the taint of favoritism. This sort of high-profile deal would not escape the attention of anyone, and would almost certainly inspire some kind of righteous indignation from whoever lost in the bidding process and their lawyers. The only players with enough of a legal bankroll and intenstinal fortitude to handle a lawsuit like that would be a megacorp. While lots of megacorps have lots of people lobbying for them here, there are quieter ways to get money from Congress. It's too risky. So that one's out of the question.
The City itself foots the bill: Not a chance. The Mayor is caught on two ends of the short leashes attached by Congress and the Council. There's next to no return on this investment. Ain't gonna happen.
A District/corporate partnership: A bidding process leads to a single winner who would oversee the design, installation and training of operations and maintenance for a defined period (let's say ten years, with a handful of two- or three-year optional extensions thrown in). In return, the winner gets promotional and other financial considerations from the city. This is a workable notion. Here's how it would break down:
What DC gets:
Well, I was going to work yesterday, waiting for the bus..., you know, supporting mass transit, being a good-to-the-earth person and all that, and I stumbled headlong into an idea. See, what happened was that the bus got stuck behind a beer delivery truck that wouldn't move to let us around. Seriously, it was sort of a bad scene... pissed off drivers behind us pounding on the windows of the bus, guys in the back of the bus shouting back at them, the driver of the truck and the bus getting into a brief shouting match. Not good. We were stuck there - I'm not even exaggerating - twenty minutes. When we finally did get through, at the very next stop and elderly woman got on and berated the driver, wanting to know where she'd been and complaining how she was now going to miss her doctors appointment.
At every bus stop there is (or at least, is supposed to be) a comprehensive printed timetable showing the times a bus will be at or near your stop. Handy, right? Seems like you could plan your work day around that pretty reliably. Don't get me wrong - you can, to some degree. The problem comes when you're taking a bus that comes only once every half-hour, or once every twenty minutes. What happens when the bus you're waiting for is 10 minutes late? Or 20? Or, as in the case yesterday, the bus is so late it effectively set the whole line back one set of pickups?
Here's the solution:
City buses are outfitted with GPS transmitters, and displays at all or most of the bus stops within the District would display how far away the next bus actually is. It would be similar to the dynamic platform signs that currently inhabit all Metrorail stations, but smaller, and a lot more of them. That way, if there is a problem with your line and you're aware of it, you might be able to plan ahead by taking another route, hailing a cab or some other alternate plan.
This sounds like a big proposition, and it is. How in the world would you get a city to go for that when it has problems nailing down details of a stadium lease agreement or the conditions under which it would get a brand new research hospital? Well, there are a handful of ways.
Financing from the Federal Government: The Feds are the biggest "users" of city services during the week - hell, maybe just the biggest consumers overall. Seems like they should have a hand in bringing their employees to work, right?
Fat chance. The Feds have never, ever demonstrated any regard for this city as its own institution. DC exists purely as their fattening pen, in their mindset. Getting them to provide any sort of funding for a service that serves precisely none of their constituents (remember, DC has no voting member in Congress) is about as likely as you flipping a coin and having it land on its edge. So we can pretty much count Federal funds out.
Corporate assistance, with Federal incentives: A corporation, eager to get on the Feds' good side, wins a competeive contract and offers to pay for the program and its execution in return for some kind of favorable glint in the Feds' eyes later. While this is, in the strictest terms, a quid pro quo, deals of this essence happen quite frequently in this town, though seldomly to the benefit of District residents.
While it has the benefit of winning the hearts and minds of DC's residents, not to mention that of the Council and Mayor, the town, at least for the moment is steering clear of anything that has the taint of favoritism. This sort of high-profile deal would not escape the attention of anyone, and would almost certainly inspire some kind of righteous indignation from whoever lost in the bidding process and their lawyers. The only players with enough of a legal bankroll and intenstinal fortitude to handle a lawsuit like that would be a megacorp. While lots of megacorps have lots of people lobbying for them here, there are quieter ways to get money from Congress. It's too risky. So that one's out of the question.
The City itself foots the bill: Not a chance. The Mayor is caught on two ends of the short leashes attached by Congress and the Council. There's next to no return on this investment. Ain't gonna happen.
A District/corporate partnership: A bidding process leads to a single winner who would oversee the design, installation and training of operations and maintenance for a defined period (let's say ten years, with a handful of two- or three-year optional extensions thrown in). In return, the winner gets promotional and other financial considerations from the city. This is a workable notion. Here's how it would break down:
What DC gets:
- All Metrobuses system-wide outfitted with GPS tracking devices;
- Displays at all or most bus stops within the District (MD & VA would have to pay to get into this system) showing the distance the next bus is and approximate time (based on modeling). If it doesn't make sense to have a display at every single bus stop, set a minimum, like every third stop, or every four blocks or something like that. Displays receive their information from a central monitoring system at Metro HQ via...
- A city-wide wireless LAN, built by the winner of the contract and maintained by them for the duration of the contract. The District pays a heavily discounted rate for use of the network. The District could (and should) turn around and offer use of the network to anyone in the city for free;
- A centralized operations center that is controlled by Metro, staffed by corporation-trained Metro employees, with data available to city and regional emergency planners. This has the benefit of having roving traffic buoys that can identify problem traffic areas, in addition to providing real-time data on bus locations.
- Exclusive right to all patents for technologies created in the endeavor, for use in other cities or private vehicle fleets;
- Preferential treatment for ads placed (at a discounted rate) on all city buses, bus stops and other locations throughout the city;
- Preferred bidder status for other city-run networking contracts that would utilize the new WLAN, such as integration into current networking infrastructure;
- A time-limited percentage cut from Metrobus profits that are above what Metro would have received in a year without this system, thus demonstrating improvement in the service;
- Bragging rights. Which shouldn't be pooh-poohed from a PR perspective.
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Where's the post?