A Tale of Two Cities (cont'd)

I am bilingual by matter of birthright. When I started in kindergarden I only spoke Spanish. Knowing two languages has its advantages. I'm sure you, dear reader, agree. But what does one do when someone needs help and doesn't speak your language? This happened to me while driving the bus in Los Angeles and then also here in Austin.

It was Saturday morning in the spring time and I was driving the 480 route in L.A. I was at the layover point on the west side of downtown, just pass the financial district. An elderly couple, who, as it turned out, were visiting from another country. They became lost and came up to my bus for help. The man started talking to me and all I could think was, "Oh, no. They only speak Italian. The man continued talking to me, friendly, but I could not understand. And then the lady started talking to me. I remember thinking how beautiful their language sounded. Like music, it had melody and rhythm. Suddenly I realized I knew what they were asking me. I also realized I had put up a wall as soon as I heard the foreign language. A lot of the words were so close to Spanish that I could make out what they were saying. I thought to myself, "I bet if I speak Spanish they will understand me." I said something in Spanish and sure enough it worked. They started talking faster and I paid close attention. I spoke Spanish to them and they spoke Italian to me and we were able to have a conversation. I was able to help them find the place they were looking for.

Believe it or don't, three years later that exact event happened again, like a rerun on t.v. Again it was Saturday morning in spring time. Only this time I'm driving the number 1 route in Austin. I stop to pick-up passengers on the drag in front of the co-op. Again an elderly couple come up to me for directions. And they only speak Italian. But this time I just go right into it. I talk to them in Spanish and I see their worried look disappear like magic. "It's a small world after all." Read more

Shorten your (single occupancy) commute; catch a bus at Tech Ridge Park & Ride

Northeast Travis County residents will have improved access to Tech Ridge Park & Ride when newly constructed segments of Heatherwilde and Wells Branch open this week. Both Travis County roadways will include sidewalks and bike lanes.

Tech Ridge Park & Ride serves as the northern terminus for routes serving the busy North Lamar/South Congress corridor (#1L/1M and #101), East Austin (#135), and UT/Downtown (#935). It also facilitates many transfers as the endpoint for Routes #243 Wells Branch and #392 Braker.

Tech Ridge P&R route map
Community Impact article Read more

Ride Capital Metro for 4th of July fun

In just two days, Austinites can enjoy yet another free 4th of July concert by the Austin Symphony, capped off with fireworks. It's happening at Auditorium Shores and the Long Center, beginning at 8:30 p.m. (fireworks at 9:30 p.m.).

Traffic and parking are messy for this event, so think about jumping on Capital Metro--we have a bunch of routes that serve Auditorium Shores.


Routes that serve Auditorium Shores include 1L/1M, 3, 7, 10, 20, 30, 328, 338, and the Night Owls. Most routes operate until around midnight, and the Night Owls run from 12 - 3 a.m.

See ya there! Read more

A Tale of Two Cities?

Back in the early '90's I worked as a bus driver in the city of Los Angeles. There were differences and similarities with how the buses in L.A. and buses here in Austin went about doing the same thing, that is, picking up and dropping off passengers.

One of the differences was in how we operated buses in downtown. In L.A. we didn't pick-up passengers at every corner. We pick-upped at every other corner. But there were bus stops at every corner.

Here's how it worked. Let's say, for fun, that you are the bus driver. And your route goes along 1st Street. Your stops would be on Los Angeles, Spring and Hill Streets, but you would skip Main, Broadway and Olive Streets. There are always other buses along your route and the stops you skipped would belong to those. But you, as the operator, would not stay in line behind the bus in front of your bus like we do so here in Austin. After you picked-up passengers, you change lanes and move in front of the other bus, which in turn, will move in front of your bus after boarding people. I always thought of it as playing leapfrog. It worked well.

I have to add that a city block in L.A. is longer than here in Austin. I can walk from 2nd to 3rd Streets while holding my breath. I'll use Austin for an example. If you, as the bus operator, picked-up folks at 11th Street, your next stop would be at Cesar Chavez Street. That is about how far apart the bus stops are in downtown L.A.

I'll end this tale of two cities with a quote from someone I love. "A-du-a-du-a-ta-a-ta-that's all folks." Read more

Yelpers Discuss Capital Metro

A customer named Michele sent us this link to a rather interesting thread on Yelp about Capital Metro.

The comments touch on everything from what people like and don't like about Capital Metro, to a more philosophical discussion about whether there is a stigma attached to riding the bus. Some of the suggestions posted for us are things we would also like to accomplish for the city, the region, and specifically, our customers. But one thing to keep in mind, and I'm sure people realize this but maybe it's worth mentioning again, with limited resources, we have to prioritize some things. Particularly over the next year or so, which we anticipate to be financially tight, we simply can't meet everyone's needs.

But we always appreciate the feedback and the discussion. Join in! Read more

On the Busy Number 1 Route

Don't call me Ishmael.

In his adventurous novel, "Moby Dick," Herman Melville's protagonist Ishmael tells us why he feels the need to go to sea. He says in part, "Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper-hand of me that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people's hats off---then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball."

How ghastly. I have never felt an urge, not even an iota of one, to assault people, even when my hypos have had me in a sturdy headlock. And certainly I have never felt a "damp, drizzly November" in any part of my soul. When I do I'll make sure to buy more life insurance.

Poor Ishmael. He would not have made a good bus operator. It would stress him out easily. Especially if he had to work the number 1 route, which I do every weekday after I finish the Leander Express.

The number 1 is our busiest line. I drive the 1L, which goes from Tech Ridge Park & Ride at Howard Lane to Southpark Meadows, at the new shopping center at Slaughter and I-35. On the map in the schedule booklet it looks almost like the Mississippi River.

Because it is so busy and taxing on operators, I had to look at it from another angle and see what it affords me. I found a prize. It is ripe with opportunity to help others. Like assisting a visually-impaired man cross a busy downtown street so he can hop on another bus; helping an elderly lady unload her groceries; helping a young mom carry the stroller on board; helping confused out-of-towners with information; or, helping all my passengers by staying on time so they won't miss their connecting route. These opportunities, as they pop-up, I hit out of the park like a slugger. Because I know if I allow one opportunity to help someone go without my aid, I will never get it back. Read more

Wednesday Morning on the 987

The oblong box cruises south on Mopac. It is 6:22 on a mid-week morning and still dark outside. The interior lights are off. Two individual overhead spotlights are on as two of my passengers read. That means 21 passengers are asleep in the recliner seats. That makes me feel good because my smooth driving lulled them to sleep, which is what they wanted and looked forward to when they boarded at Leander and Lakeline. A 15-minute nap will help them get through the morning. As I drive this particular morning I see a meteor streak down and quickly disappear. It is the end of its million mile journey. I don't mention this to my passengers. It is too early to wake them.

But like almost all good things, this ride, as comfy and cozy as it is, is disturbed at 6:26 when the first passengers deboard from the bus. I go into my routine. "Time to get up. Don't forget anything. Make sure you have what belongs to you. Up and at 'em. Show them what you're made out've." Reminds me of when I was the duty N.C.O. in the Marines and had to call reveille, decades back. I walked the barracks to make sure every marine was up. Job well done.

My passengers know me by my name because this is the third time (or "mark-up," to use transportation lingo) I've had this run, the 987 Leander.

Each of my passengers smiles at me as they walk out and onto work. It's priceless.

They are in a good mood because their morning commute was quiet. Uneventful. Just as they like it. I did my part in making their day start off well. In turn they will make other people's day better. It is a chain reaction made from positive energy. At 6:44 the bus is empty except for me. And I think to myself, "Another job well done." Read more

ServicePlan2020

Capital Metro's bus service is going under the microscope. Capital Metro: ServicePlan2020 is a comprehensive operational analysis of every aspect of Capital Metro's bus service. The resulting recommendations will become our roadmap for growth over the next 10 years.

Most big transit agencies do some kind of major analysis of their services and routes periodically. It's a beneficial process, as routes tend to morph over time into a spaghetti bowl. A relevant example is the 'Dillo routes before they were streamlined last year. Likewise, it's an opportunity to thoroughly examine procedures and generally improve the system.

Capital Metro is way overdue for this type of mid-range planning. Some of the legwork for ServicePlan2020 has already been completed. Last year, Capital Metro completed a market segmentation study that yielded a considerable amount of information about rider demographics, barriers to riding, and what people like and don't like about us. That info is one dimension of the analysis. Other factors to be included are: existing system conditions (what works and what doesn't) and community participation and feedback.

ServicePlan2020 makes progress this week when two stakeholder committees convene and begin their work, analyzing various service aspects and identifying unmet needs. A Technical Advisory Committee (made up of planner types from allied transportation entities) and a Community Advisory Committee (representative of riders and community groups who have a key stake in public transportation) will meet periodically over the course of the year to refine ServicePlan2020. We want your involvement, too, and we'll post updates and open house meeting information here as things go along.
Read more

June 2009 Service Change: 'Dillos

Another proposal in the June 2009 Service Change is to eliminate weekend service on the ‘Dillos, both #450 Congress Ave. and #451 6th Street. Unfortunately no one is riding the ‘Dillos on weekends. Well, that’s not exactly true. On any given ‘Dillo trip made on weekends, there’s on average between two and four people on it.

You may recall that last year the ‘Dillo system got a major overhaul: In Aug. 2008 we streamlined the routes and schedules so that they could operate as they were originally intended: as downtown circulators. During the week, the ‘Dillos work great transporting downtown workers and residents to meetings, lunch, and shopping errands. On weekends, the vision was that the ‘Dillos would attract tourists, weekend shoppers, and downtown residents. And it does, just not enough of them to justify the service. Of all of Capital Metro’s routes that operate on weekends, the ‘Dillos have the fewest riders—2-4 riders per trip, as I mentioned. By contrast, #1L/1M, our busiest route, carries about 80 people per trip on weekends. The poor economy may play a role in the low ridership, since today there’s perhaps fewer tourists and weekend shoppers milling around downtown.

Public input is always sought before any service change proposal is adopted, and the public hearing about the June 2009 Service Change is today at 12:30 p.m., at Capital Metro’s headquarters, 2910 E. 5th Street.
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Where is My Ride?

Sorry for the long delay in reporting from the technology fronts. We have been extremely busy getting ready for the rail startup in just a few weeks (working on all of the technology at the stations and behind the scenes that you can't see) and in pushing the Automatic Vehicle Location project forward to fruition (as I started to talk about here).

One of the exciting things we are working on is enhancing the trip planner and website to provide better information about where the vehicle you care about is and when it will arrive. The latter problem while not trivial is actually the easier of the two to report on. In fact we have recently enhanced our website to give predicted arrival times for the next 3 buses at any given stop (link). Please take a look at it and let us know what you think. Currently this information is based on scheduled arrival time, but as we turn on the Automatic Vehicle Location system we will start replacing scheduled time with estimated time (based on the present location of the vehicle and its latest speed).

The trickier bit is if we should, and how we should display the real-time location of our vehicles once the AVL system is installed. The advantage to displaying the latest location of all of our fixed route vehicles is that individual riders can figure out which vehicle will best meet their needs and it greatly improves the transparency of the system. The down side to displaying this information is that people will count on the data being precise and as everyone should be aware of by now, technology is not always as accurate as we would like (think airplane arrival times or medical billing :-)). What we don't want to happen is to put information out there that a specific bus is 3 blocks away when it is really 1 block away. People will act on the information in front of them and may miss a bus they wanted. This is not what we want to accomplish with AVL.

I think the key is to display the information in a way that quickly indicates how precise and how reliable it really is. All AVL systems have to pick a frequency of vehicle location updates. For bandwidth and communication cost reasons it is impossible to query the bus and train vehicle every second to know where it is. Practically there is little value in querying a bus every second for its location when it is moving at 5 miles per hour. Conversely it is bad to query a train at 5 minute intervals when it is moving at 60 miles per hour (the stated location will be up to 5 miles away from the true location of the train). For this reason our system will attempt to balance the frequency with the velocity of the vehicles and find a happy medium. But as with all things used by many people, it will not be possible to please everyone with the compromise we reach.

Given this challenge of frequency and real-time accuracy we are left with the issue of how to display the information in a meaningful and non-misleading manner. I pose this challenge to the Austin community as I have yet to find any transit agencies with AVL systems that seem to have solved this conundrum perfectly. For your consideration, here are some of the agencies we have found with AVL that are attempting to visually display the most recent location of their bus fleets. You be the judge and let us know what you think works best.
King County Washington Note: Shows last time the vehicle was querried
Chicago Transit Authority Note: Nice display of Google base map and option to pick routes
Next Bus Note: This is a private company that integrates the approach for many agencies

There may be others, and we would love to hear about them, but we would really like to hear your thoughts on this matter. Read more

Belated Love on the Bus

Valentines Day came and went, and without a single hokey/snarky/cynical/sentimental mention on our blog! Perhaps you were out yesterday and saw Carla and David Houston's bus, two riders who met on the 1L/1M, and then fell in love and got married. Carla entered her love story in the i-Ride contest, and now their image decorates one of our buses. All together now: Awwwww.


The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority earlier this week asked riders to submit their tales of love and romance on MTA subways, buses and trains. The best ones would get posted on the MTA Web site on Valentines Day.

Here in Austin, I had a grand idea of collecting your own stories about love and romance and Capital Metro. Austinites are at least as creative as New Yorkers, and perhaps some masterpiece date ideas would emerge--you know, for Valentines Day. Unfortunately, I got sort of busy and it never got posted. But since a burgeoning romance can spark between cross-town riders on any ol' day of the year, I hope you'll still offer up your stories.

I'll start, with a true story of a blind date I had in 2007 that involved Capital Metro. That date went the way of most blind dates... nowhere; however, it was a pretty clever blind date idea, if I do say so myself.

Remember Gibson's Austin GuitarTown project? Several 10-foot art guitar sculptures were placed all over downtown and beyond. My blind date with Jon, who I believe was a bass guitar player in a band, began at the art guitar painted with Mexican free-tailed bats at the edge of the Congress Avenue Bridge near the Radisson. The plan was this: we'd walk or ride Capital Metro to visit all of the guitars, and take pictures of each one. (I had conveniently already mapped out the location of the sculptures on a Capital Metro System Map.) It's a little nerdy, yes, but it worked pretty good for a blind date because there was a project to complete, taking the pressure off a little.

Now, your turn!
Read more

Better Ways to Reach Out

I will be the first to admit that public transit is less than intuitive. Timetables and routes and zones and fare structures are less than intuitive. And the harder it is to use something (like public transit or your cell phone's latest features) the less likely people are to use it. In our business of public transit we are aware of the many barriers to using our system on a daily basis (despite what it may seem like from the outside). Working in the technology group there are however only so many of those barriers that we can address directly (much as I would like to I cannot make the buses come more often). But what we can do is try to make the effort to get information about the system as easy as possible. The theory being that as we knock down barriers to using public transit, more people will want to use it. In that vein, I came across a fascinating article about a little town right here in our neighborhood that has gone off and done something useful in a very ingenious way. While the connection to public transit may not be obvious, let me explain...

Out friends to the south in San Antonio did something smart about 10 years back by putting a unique number on every bus stop in their town. With that number, when someone calls into their phone system or when they visit their website they are able to access information specific to their bus stop simply by referencing the unique number at their stop. This makes it way easier to ask for the next bus to arrive at stop #5413 than to have to describe the bus stop (the one just north of 5th and Congress on the um I think it is the west side of the street... hold on a minute and let me ask someone which side of the street we are on...). This type of short hand is very useful for lowing the barrier to bus and train information. 

Realizing the advantage of this type of shorthand to reference points of interest within the Capital Metro world we have begun the long process of putting unique bus stop numbers at each of our stops as we roll out new signs (the problem with getting this done quickly is that we have to modify 3100+ bus stops and transit centers with a precise piece of information that can't be in error). As we start to get this numeric shorthand in place you will see us roll out the new ability to get stop specific information from our web and IVR systems in this way.

What is exciting about the Manor experiment is that they have taken this concept of a simple reference link to a much deeper source of information and they have proven it can be done for a small amount of money and they have shown that a lot more information can be compressed into a relatively small space. The new form of short hand (in their case a QR code) can be used to convey much more information than a simple 4 or 5 digit number. Of course the hurdle now becomes getting people familiar with a new way of accessing information, but as camera phones become more popular this problem may be solved by other people. (To understand what the city of Manor did and to understand this new way of compressing more information please read the associated article here.)

And for those of you that would like to try this out, I have included a QR code jump below to e-mail me your thoughts. (If you need help deciphering this strange beast, read the article above. If that doesn't work then post a comment on this blog and I will show you how to take advantage of these hieroglyphics.) As always, I would love to hear what you think on this topic and where you think shortcuts like these could best be used in our system.
Read more

Last chance to buy a 'Dillo

You might remember in November we advertised some retired 'Dillos for sale in an online auction. All told, we had 12 'Dillo trolleys to sell, and the last two are currently up for auction on GovDeals.

You may be asking, what can you do with an old 'Dillo?



For inspiration, ask Karisa Prestera, who turned an old 'Dillo into the retail outlet of her business, Taste No Evil Muffins. Karisa transformed the 'Dillo into the whimsical store seen above and sells her muffins there six days a week.

Karisa advertises the former-'Dillo-headquarters on her Facebook page as part of what makes her business uniquely Austin. Here is the "before" photo:
(Check out the Taste No Evil Muffin Company on Facebook for a series of photos documenting the retired 'Dillo's transformation.)

This particular 'Dillo is an older model than the ones currently for sale online, possibly in service even prior to Capital Metro's formation in 1985. The Taste No Evil Muffins trolley isn't operational, but has a permanent home outside the eclectic Maria's Taco Xpress on South Lamar. (Ride routes #3, 29, 331, or 338 to get to the muffin trolley.)

I mentioned to Karisa that she could upgrade her 'Dillo to one that actually runs, and she'd love to if only she had $30,000 to spend (more or less the going rate for the other 'Dillos we've sold). Instead, she is saving her dough to install convection ovens in the trolley--maybe as early as this spring--so she can move 100% of her operations into the muffin trolley. That would make Taste No Evil Muffins the first complete bakery bus. (Well maybe not the very first, but at least the very first bakery in a former 'Dillo!)

You can bid on the two remaining 'Dillos through Jan. 14.

Read more

Service Advisory

StarTran, Inc., service provider for Capital Metro, and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 have not reached an agreement on a contract. The Union has rejected StarTran’s final contract proposal. Although a strike is possible, both parties have expressed a willingness to continue to negotiate.

In the event of a strike, Capital Metro is prepared to serve the public by operating a reduced level of service to provide coverage to the busiest routes and those that serve major destinations such as hospitals, schools, the central business district and areas with a high number of riders. If a work stoppage occurs, the following routes will operate from 6 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. daily:


1L/1M North Lamar/South Congress
3 Burnet/Manchaca
7 Duval/Dove Springs
10 South First/Red River
17 Cesar Chavez
20 Manor Road/Riverside
37 Colony Park/Windsor Park
101 N. Lamar/S. Congress Ltd.
300 Govalle
331 Oltorf

In the event of a strike, the following routes which are not operated by StarTran will run as regularly scheduled:

UT Shuttle Routes (open to the general public)
AISD Routes (open to the general public)
142 Metric Flyer
214 Lago Vista Feeder
990 Northwest Express (Manor)
Northwest Dial-a-Ride Service (Monday, Wednesday and Friday only)

Capital MetroAccess (formerly Special Transit Service) for passengers with disabilities will operate at a reduced service level from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays only. Reservation priority will be given to customers in need of dialysis or urgent medical appointments followed by riders needing transportation to work or school, if resources and capacity allow.

Capital Metro urges customers to review the limited service options available and to be prepared with alternate transportation plans such as carpooling if there is a strike. The very latest information on routes will be posted on capmetro.org and available by calling (512) 474-1200.

Capital Metro will add additional service as resources become available.

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Detour Drama

If you tried to get around downtown over the Labor Day weekend, you know firsthand how difficult it was to navigate. Several special events closed city streets and created transportation headaches for everyone, whether you were in a car or a bus.

To those who were relying upon Capital Metro, we apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Street closures are a big, big deal to us because they create detours for our bus routes and cause some bus stops to temporarily close—in essence they interfere with our business and make it hard for our customers to get around!

Don’t get me wrong. I love all the delightfully Austintatious events in this city, and a number of my friends and coworkers compete in the many foot and bike races in town. But speaking with my Capital Metro Employee Hat firmly in place, street closures are a real pain.

In order to effectively let our customers know about detours that will be in place for an upcoming event, we print and post signage for affected bus stops (and on the buses that run those routes) about a week and a half in advance, and then post the detour information to our Web site during the week before the event. We actually have a staff committee that meets every week to review and plan for special events detours. We also meet regularly with City of Austin staff (the city approves and implements the street closures for special events) so that we can develop bus route detours effectively.

Unfortunately the plans don’t always go smoothly, and the city closes additional blocks, or the streets are closed earlier than we anticipated, and our buses are forced to detour the detour, on the spot. When this occurs, our signage at bus stops and on our Web site is no longer accurate. During major events, Capital Metro’s field supervisors patrol the routes, looking for people who need help catching a detoured bus. With so many routes on detour this weekend, it was hard.

We will continue to work with the city to improve the coordination between them and us for street closures and detours. We have been monitoring closely the work of the city-sponsored Downtown Street Event Closure Task Force and are providing input to that group. Hopefully it’ll be a smoother ride for all of us in the future. Read more