Headway

Since we’ve been chatting about the iPhone enough recently, let’s look at some low-tech solutions. How about plain old paper?

A new site called SeptaMadeBetter.org is encouraging riders to print out their own signage and post it on bus stops and rail stations.

This is a great idea: if you can adopt a highway, why not a bus stop? It can be hard for an agency with tens of thousands of individual stops to provide up-to-date map and schedule information at all of them. However, there are people who stand at each of those stops every day, who can notice if the schedule has gotten out of date, or if the map has faded to illegibility, and can post replacements.

Here’s how we could take this to the next level: First, create a web application that lets you find your stop, and then generates a printable PDF map and schedule tailored to that stop. (This photo from a Washington, DC shelter is a great example of stop specific-signage.) The schedule information is key, because “am I going to be standing here forever like a chump?” is usually the main question running through people’s heads when they’re standing at a bus stop. Second, add a measure of pride and accountability by putting the name of the person or organization maintaining that sign on the sign itself, as well as associated with the stop in the web app.

The biggest problem to solve is how to post signs securely and protect them against the elements. This is complicated by the wide variety of bus stops—some might be marked on city-owned poles, some might be agency-owned signposts, and some might be bus shelters that are owned by media companies like Clear Channel! For their part, SeptaMadeBetter recommends covering the printed pages with clear tape or laminating them before posting them. I wonder what other low-cost/low-hassle mounting solutions people could use: a more constructive version of postal label graffiti? Cable ties in service of transit?

Fortunately, some agencies are already encouraging this type of community involvement. A search for “adopt a bus stop” turns up many programs, mostly aimed at cleaning up litter around bus stops. And Bewdley in the UK has (or had?) a program to keep schedules current using volunteer effort. Still, I think this is an area with a lot of untapped potential for forward-looking transit agencies and community-minded riders.