King County Metro reduces ‘bus bunching’
Every week, hundreds of thousands of riders use King County Metro’s RapidRide bus service to get where they need to go. To further improve the consistency and frequency of RapidRide, Metro is expanding the use of Advanced Service Management (ASM).
How does it work? The key change is moving from scheduled service (meaning buses aimed to arrive at set times on a clock) to more evenly spaced or headway-based services (meaning buses arrive a set number of minutes apart). Reliability means regularly spaced bus service (that is, less “bus bunching”), reducing gaps between buses and ensuring that any issues that could lead to delays are identified and resolved quickly.
Last year, we piloted the Advanced Service Management program on the RapidRide A and F lines. Riders experienced smoother and more reliable service. With the success of that pilot, Metro is now expanding Advanced Service Management to the RapidRide G Line as part of the spring service change. Advanced Service Management will start on the G Line March 31.
What does Advanced Service Management involve?
Advanced Service Management is a system of staff collaboration, street designs and features, and transit-specific technology that meet customer needs for faster, more reliable service on RapidRide lines, while improving the employee experience.
- Advanced coordination: Bus drivers, Service Quality teams and Transit Control Center staff work together to solve problems in real time. That means relaying issues that could delay service – such as an accident along the route or an operator not receiving their scheduled rest break. Onsite supervisors assist operators to switch coaches, be aware of reroutes, and manage operator break times, which ensures reliable service to riders.
- Improve and assess: Street designs can affect bus travel time and reliability. Street designs include bus lanes, bus stop and boarding designs (such as all-door and left-lane/median boarding), and bus transit signals that give buses an advantage at intersections so they can start before other traffic.
- Synchronizing technology: Service is more reliable when we ensure the technology is in synch to relay information to our bus drivers via onboard technology and to passengers waiting at stops via the Real Time Information System (RTIS).
- Consistent maintenance: Teams will improve how they monitor and coordinate regular maintenance of signs, messaging and bus layover locations.
No one likes to wait for a bus – especially on routes that are called “RapidRide.” Advanced Service Management coordinates many kinds of resources to ensure smoother operations and reliable rides!
This does not make sense. Some people need to make transfers after their bus ride. Without a consistent schedule, they just have to hope their bus is on time? Or take a bus early just to wait at the next stop unnecessarily?
All these improvements sound good, but it’s not clear to me how they reduce bus bunching. I’d expect that reducing bunching would actually require that buses either (a) get prioritized in traffic control to move faster if they’re running to far behind the bus in front of them (or potentially skip stops…but that would compromise the rider experience) or (b) delay buses further behind buses that are delayed in front of them (but this would also compromise the rider experience).