How to Make Transit (and Biking and Walking) Sexy.

[KeystoneRegional]

 

• The Atlantic Cities - "SARAH GOODYEAR
  
• APR 30, 2012
  
• 17 COMMENTS
  

 

Top image: A rendering of the Grand Hall of the planned Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, courtesy Transbay Joint Powers Authority.

Maybe what transit in the United States needs is a little more joy.

“Joy” and other enticing words such as “freedom,” “fun,” “sexy,” and “seductive” are common parlance in automobile marketing. But when it comes to transit – at least in the United States – not so much.

In a new e-book from Island Press called Making Transit Fun! How to Entice Motorists from Their Cars (and onto Their Feet, a Bike, or Bus), urban designer and writer Darrin Nordahl writes that advocates for non-car transportation need to stop trying to appeal to reason and go for the gut instead:

 

If people behaved entirely rationally, we would have foregone our cars long ago. … Against sound reasons of safety, environmental health, and personal wealth, we still drive. People simply love their cars. And as we all know, love and reason are like oil and water….

 

What has become very clear in the automotive world is the power positive emotion wields over a person’s choice. While joy seems to be a dominant word in the language of carmakers, the transit industry often focuses on words such as

function, usefulness

,

safety

,

convenience

, and

accessibility

. These are all important words, no doubt. But what are lacking in the transit vocabulary are nouns of positive emotion:

delight

,

allure

,

pleasure

,

exhilaration

, and

compulsion

.

Can we make people look longingly at mass transit? Can we give biking and walking the aura of cool that has long been the province of the automobile? Or are buses doomed to be the butt of jokes, along with the city of Cleveland?

Nordahl has a raft of suggestions, many based on real-world efforts of transit officials and planners to lure people out of their cars. Some are whimsical (like slides in train stations, something they’ve actually tried in the Netherlands, or fruit-shaped bus shelters, which have popped up in Japan). Some are more substantive, such as making transit stations into great civic spaces, as in the case of the Transbay Transit Center, scheduled to open in San Francisco in 2017:

 

[it] will be like nothing North America has ever seen before—not even in Midtown Manhattan. The massive multilevel, multimodal transit station drips with sex appeal, featuring gorgeous architecture with sinuous curves, enriched paving, lush landscaping, and seductive water displays. But the real value comes from the variety of interconnected and well-appointed public spaces. Jogging and walking trails snake their way through a five-and-a-half-acre city park that sits atop the station. The park will boast a café, a plaza, an open-air amphitheatre, water fountains, lily ponds, and large grassy areas for casual activity. This rooftop oasis connects people back down to street level through Mission Square, a stately urban space sprouting redwood trees and a delicate, undulating canopy of glass and steel.

Sure, you might be thinking. Sounds great, if you can afford it. But expensive public works projects are by no means the only way to make transit, biking, and walking sexier, writes Nordahl:

 

Contrary to what our gut tells us,

good

design -- the kind that provides utility

and

delight -- can be affordable. The issue here is not about spending more, but about spending smarter. Sure, designing for the human experience will indeed be an extra and likely expensive cost if it is an afterthought; something retrofitted to the final functional design. But when we design our sidewalks, bike lanes, and transportation circulators with the concern for human experience at the forefront, joy is surprisingly cheap.

He looks at how some cities have succeeded in making buses more appealing through a relatively low-cost combination of marketing and design, citing Boulder, Colorado, as an example:

 

“If you were to go back to 1990 and ask what role did public transit play in Boulder,” recollects Will Toor, former mayor of Boulder, “it was essentially a social service for people who had no other choice about how they got around.” Toor said this didn’t sit well with policymakers at the time. Instead, they wanted a transit system that could “compete for people who have other choices.” …

 

Together, citizens and planners came up with a brilliant idea to give each route a unique identity: the Hop, Skip, Jump, Bound, Bolt, Dash, and Stampede. Graphic designers were hired to create unique logos and illustrative themes for each bus line…. Mayor Toor said the idea behind enlisting the public to help rebrand the bus came from a simple question: “What would make you

want

to ride the bus?” “It wasn’t rocket science,” said Toor, “it was just what any private business would do.”

And that type of thinking, according to Nordahl, could be the key to changing American perceptions about transit. Getting out of the bureaucratic mindset and being more entrepreneurial and creative is the only way, he argues, that transit advocates will ever chip away at the auto’s dominance.

We may be at the perfect historical moment for arguments like Nordahl’s to take hold. As Richard Florida noted here earlier this month, young people are driving less than their parents– and not just because they are strapped for cash. They are increasingly seeing the car in a negative light. What better time to stop promoting transit, biking, and walking as if they weregood for you (the horror!) and instead start pitching them as a genuinely enjoyable way to get around?

If they are to succeed, these efforts have to be more than just window dressing. In order to make someone want to ride transit, a slick paint job won't do the trick. The service has to be useful, pleasant, and efficient once the rider chooses to hop on. In the United States, it's long been a struggle to get funds to make those kinds of systems a reality. But Nordahl's book is a reminder that transit has only lost when it aims low. We should always be looking for joy, even on the bus."

Source Link: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/04/how-make-transit-and-biking-and-walking-sexy/1879/

[lilbluefoxie]

The reason people prefer their cars is they want to be able to go anywhere, anytime, in the comfort of their own private vehicle, and not have to deal with a schedule or making multiple transfers or annoying passengers

[Joel Up Front]

The reason people prefer their cars is they want to be able to go anywhere, anytime, in the comfort of their own private vehicle, and not have to deal with a schedule or making multiple transfers or annoying passengers

 

 

I'm on the middle of the fence. Tired of the pricks claiming they'd die without their cars and I'm tired of the daily routine of having some skank's crappy iPhone earbuds blasting Nicki Minaj centimeters away from my face on a crowded bus, which has another five feet of empty space behind said person, only to miss my bus home after finally getting off.

[VWM]

nah, i'm good with transit the way it is, minus what Joel said above.

[qjtransitmaster]

doing nothing gets nothing that book is pure genius but making transit cool is meaningless if the schedules are complete shit. TRANSIT NEEDS JOY and needs to TRY to lure people out of cars the way most are it looks like they ARE NOT TRYING they need to try you will never know how high ridership can go till you try keyword is EFFORT stop aiming only for the poor aim to pack the buses with as many ppl as possible reguardless of income and transit that thinks like that will always do better than systems that only serve the poor

[lilbluefoxie]

instead of uploading stupid graphics, prove me wrong. Ask anyone with a car why they prefer to drive around Long island than sit on the bus and you will get the same response. and lets face it, they can design it as fancy as they want, everyone knows in like 5-6 months its going to look like shit thanks to a lack of maintenance and vandalism, especially if they're doing this stuff in New York city.

 

When I went to Boston earlier this week, I drove up there. Because I wanted the comfort, and convenience of my own car to go when I want, where I want, and so I can bring as much stuff as I want. You try bringing home a 34 gallon plastic bin with a fursuit on Amtrak or Fung Wah, chances are itll mysteriously dissapear on Amtrak or get damaged when the Fung Wah Bus explodes

 

 

I'm on the middle of the fence. Tired of the pricks claiming they'd die without their cars and I'm tired of the daily routine of having some skank's crappy iPhone earbuds blasting Nicki Minaj centimeters away from my face on a crowded bus, which has another five feet of empty space behind said person, only to miss my bus home after finally getting off.

 

[qjtransitmaster]

that is why I don't use fungwah bus lol. I use megabus or in your case bolt to LIRR then drive cause connecting bus service at some times when you need it the most is complete shit

[B35 via Church]

lmao @ that graphic Joel posted !

 

Where do you find these things...

[qjtransitmaster]

don't know joel must be a comedian

[Amtrak7]

Transit, even hourly service, can be made attractive if the connections are timed and OTP is pretty good.

 

For places that don't justify service levels <= every 2 hours, demand response might be a good candidate. The idea of a shared ride taxi for a really low fare will probably entice many.

[qjtransitmaster]

exactly amtrak7 you mastered it sadly more need to do so

[B35 via Church]

that is why I don't use fungwah bus lol. I use megabus or in your case bolt to LIRR then drive cause connecting bus service at some times when you need it the most is complete shit

 

don't know how I didn't see this earlier... prolly too busy laughin @ that pic...

 

Anyway, You gotta have a death-wish to want to embark upon those fung wah/AA bus/double happiness/whatever they call themselves now buses..... I see ppl waitin for them things over there on east broadway in chinatown & I'm like, muggs would do anything to save a couple bucks....

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

don't know joel must be a comedian

 

You learn something new every day

that is why I don't use fungwah bus lol. I use megabus or in your case bolt to LIRR then drive cause connecting bus service at some times when you need it the most is complete shit

 

 

What the hell is Fung Wah Bus. I've several buses pass down l-278, But what is their core places of operation.

[lilbluefoxie]

You learn something new every day

 

 

What the hell is Fung Wah Bus. I've several buses pass down l-278, But what is their core places of operation.

 

 

its a chinese bus company, originally designed to serve chinatown residents in New York City and Boston, but people of all types wind up on there, mainly becasue of the cheap fares.

[qjtransitmaster]

they are no longer cheaper than greyhound anymore thanks to greyhound,bolt bus and megabus cheap fares that sometimes dip to as low as $1