More Riders

Bus stops as information hubs. Or useless signs.

I’m more convinced that the best investment for most agencies is to tape a print-out of the bus schedule on the back of every bus stop sign in their town.

For more new potential riders, the bus stop is the first communications vehicle they encounter as they try to navigate transit.

And unless the bus stop sign is particularly good, it is probably rather useless. Maybe there’s a phone number on the sign. Maybe there’s a route number. Or maybe it just says “Bus stop”

It should convey the route and the schedule. (Ideally in a stem-and-leaf design).

Mark Forsythe of the Kansas City Post calls for a significant upgrade of bus stops into bus shelters in KC, and lays out rather well the impossible task facing a new potential rider at most bus stops to rely on a sign without any information.

Transit agencies don’t think enough about communications to potential riders. And the failure to do that leaves riders (and their fares and their votes) off the bus.