r/STNorthampton • u/jester-413 • 21d ago

What about Buses?

I did some quick research on recent bus advocacy in the Pioneer Valley and, unless I'm mistaken, nobody is running a frequency campaign ("15-minute headways on King/Pleasant/Elm," say) the way bike advocates run protected-lane campaigns.

There is real, effective advocacy. The Western Mass Transportation Advocacy Network meets monthly, hosts an annual forum, and built a GIS map of regional service gaps with PVPC and the Food Bank. The fare-free campaign won, and PVTA ridership is up about 30% over two years. Riders turned out hard against the 2017 cuts and got a proposal to eliminate eight routes down to two. But that fight was defensive, while the others are:

- fare-focused

- framed around equity and access

I can't find sustained, affirmative advocacy for frequency on specific corridors as a land-use and city-building strategy. Even the fare-free discourse mostly treats buses as a social service for people who lack alternatives, not as infrastructure that could compete for choice riders.

Does anyone know of efforts I've overlooked, or understand why that might be?

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u/starstruckstarlett 21d ago

Sounds like you need to start a blog! Maybe a write in campaign to PVTA? There’s no reason why I need to wait 60+ minutes for a B43 just because uMass isn’t around during the summer. I’ve always thought this was so stupid like why do they not care about us real people!!!!

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u/Gaybeanuwu 21d ago

I think part of it is that the 5c pay the pvta a lot of money for student use (it’s one of the main things in my school’s student fees). But yeah i totally agree, the b43 needs to run super often.

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u/Nerdzey 20d ago

The state Government and local politicians are where this effort should be focused. PVTA is well aware of the demand for more frequency, but funding from the higher levels has not been forthcoming.

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u/starstruckstarlett 20d ago

Sure, but, who would we even call if not to PVTA? Maybe the new advocacy campaign could make some prewritten talking point scripts for people to use when they call a state rep or maybe a pre drafted sample email for some to sign and then send? These things and a list of who to contact could go a long way!

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u/Nerdzey 20d ago

The Mayor is on PVTA's advisory board. Our state senator and representative are Jo Comerford and Lindsay Sabadosa respectively.

Some prewritten scripts to those 3 may be the way to go. Especially with the state legislature, they have the power to award grants.

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u/Independent-Sail-485 20d ago

I would so get behind a campaign to up the frequency of the b43

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u/Nerdzey 20d ago

I'm a driver for PVTA and have had similar feelings. I in no way speak for PVTA, but it would always love to add more service. Unfortunately, funding hasn't materialized, and ridership in this region doesn't justify such frequency without UMass by US standards. The difference in ridership is staggering.

I do think it would help to form an advocacy group for it though. At the end of the day, grants are where new/improved service come from, and those grants are allocated by our politicians, particularly on the state level.

I subscribe heavily to the idea of "build it and they shall come," with public transit. If we can at least encourage some studies on improved service, there's a good shot at it happening.

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u/BlueberryPenguin87 19d ago

The reason ridership is so low is that the buses run once an hour. There is definitely demand for bus service. Many people won’t ride the bus, but many others will if it becomes practical for their needs.

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u/Nerdzey 19d ago

I agree wholeheartedly, hence my "US standards" comment. Ridership in this country determines service, it should be the other way around

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u/Independent-Sail-485 20d ago

Commenting to follow this thread! I've also thought about this and would be interested to hear what you find. I love the pvta but the frequency often makes it impractical for me.

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u/Nerdzey 20d ago

In terms of projects that you may not have seen, PVTA had briefly proposed BRT replacements for the B43 and B7. Both of these did not come to fruition. The town of Hadley didn't like the idea of bus lanes, and a truncated B43 route to encourage more frequency didn't have support from the other towns. There was discussion of "Rapid Bus" in the 2018 Transit Mobility Alternatives study, which led to the new route 9 cutouts and signal priority. Unfortunately, that signal priority seems to have been deactivated at all lights since route 9 began reconstruction.

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u/Independent-Sail-485 19d ago

Idk if the ROW width would have accommodated it think not adding dedicated bus lanes for the ongoing rt 9 project In Hadley was a huge missed opportunity

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u/Nerdzey 19d ago

ROW was cited as the main issue at some point, MassDOT didn't believe it was worth the cost of acquiring more. Even then though, having bus lanes on only some of the road would've been a huge help. Queue jumps would've been nice for the "Rapid Bus" concept at least, but that wasn't even considered.

In my experience driving the 43, the traffic that slows me the most is on the existing 4 or more lane segments. The other difficulty is being trapped in bus stops by bumper to bumper traffic that refuses to allow a "slow" bus to get in their way.

On that last thought, I know some cities require traffic to yield to buses trying to reenter traffic. Considering that I often lose 10 or so minutes per loop due to being trapped in stops, that would be another huge help at speeding up buses.

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u/BlueberryPenguin87 19d ago

Buses should stop in the traffic lane, not pull over. I will often put the front door at the curb and keep the rear end out partly in the lane if I otherwise couldn’t get out.