As of this morning, riders who board regular Metro routes at dozens of RapidRide stops along the C and D lines can now see arrival information for their buses on the digital signs that used to show RapidRide arrivals only. (Stops along the A and B lines have had this feature for some time.)

It’s important to us to keep improving our technology to help our riders travel as smoothly and swiftly as possible.

Next up—we’re working with our vendor to get larger digital signs for stops that serve many routes, so riders can see arrival times for several routes at once.

Read all about it on the Metro Matters blog.

Buses are taking a little longer to get through the intersection of 35th Avenue SW and SW Avalon Street

We’re working closely with the Seattle Department of Transportation on a solution, and together are committed to reactivating transit signal priority at the four intersections – 35th Avenue SW and SW Avalon Way, 35th Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, 42nd Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, and California Avenue SW and Fauntleroy Way SW.

RapidRide buses will continue to travel their routes while we work to find a solution, and transit signal priority remains active at four other intersections along the C Line. Thanks for your patience as we work on this issue.

Transit signal priority is one element that RapidRide incorporates to improve speed and reliability.  On the A, B, C, and D lines there are currently more than 80 intersections equipped with signal priority. The C Line will have nine once they are fully operational.

That changed quietly over the Christmas holiday. After months of work behind the scenes on software bugs and special data streams, we’re now seeing more accurate arrival time predictions, both on our signs and in the app.

The predictions should now be more – well – predictable. You should see bus arrival times counting down in one-minute increments, with the countdowns less prone to strange jumps. At RapidRide C and D line stops without real-time information signs, riders can use their smartphones to scan QR codes for information for that stop via OneBusAway.

OneBusAway was developed by graduate students at the UW and has become the most popular real-time third-party app in the area. It has become an important feature that many riders think of as part of Metro’s system, however Metro does not operate the app. Metro provides data to any interested third party application developers who wish to use our system data.

OneBusAway and real-time arrival info are important to us and to our riders, especially during evening commutes when crowding and frustration can be eased by riders knowing, for example, that another bus is only a handful of minutes away.

C and D line arrival signs are more accurate these days.

Our tech experts continue to watch the real-time information system very closely to make sure it’s working as it should. The system is complex, relying on vehicle locators, communications systems (fiber optics and radio), predictive software, two connected RapidRide lines, and the OneBusAway app. Metro is committed to having these all work together as reliably as possible, but on any given day, one little break in the chain of information could produce a temporary outage that requires patience from our riders.

For now, thanks for your patience while we worked on the problem, and let us know how the app and real-time arrival signs are working for you.

We’ll collect data for a few days and analyze it as part of our ongoing effort to improve the performance and accuracy of real-time bus arrival signs at RapidRide stops. Behind the scenes, we continue to troubleshoot the software, hardware, and communications that feed the signs – a dynamic system that tracks buses, reports their locations, and predicts and reports when they’ll arrive at upcoming stops.

This key feature is integral to RapidRide service, something riders remind us of daily – especially when traffic congestion delays our otherwise frequent service. We’re working on improving the system with the goal of providing good information more consistently.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

And during the past two weeks, Metro and the city of Seattle activated transit signal priority at eight more intersections along the D Line – bringing the total to 25 locations.

Transit signal priority improvements give RapidRide buses a longer green light to help an approaching bus make it through the intersection before the light turns. When a bus arrives on red, the other green lights are shortened to give the bus its green light sooner.

Read more on the Metro Matters Blog.

Starting Nov. 13, bus drivers also will have updated evening schedules, based on what we’ve learned from operating RapidRide in downtown Seattle the past six weeks. The revised schedules will help C Line buses arrive more regularly at stops.

See the  news release for more details.

Metro is continuing to gather and analyze data to make the bus system work better in this time of growing ridership and tight budgets. We’ll have more to report in coming weeks. Keep us posted on how the changes are working for you.

*A ticket vending machine is being installed this week at Convention Place station in the transit tunnel.

Use off-board ORCA readers and board through the back doors.
At stations with off-board ORCA readers, you can pay before you get on the bus and then board through one of the back doors (between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. only – at other times, all riders enter through the front door for security reasons). Where this option is available, it’s a great way to cut down the bottleneck at the front of the bus. We’re working with the City of Seattle to install ORCA readers in downtown Seattle, with the goal of having them in place by fall 2013.

Exit via the back doors.
You can cut the amount of time the bus spends at your stop by leaving through the back doors, so other passengers can start boarding through the front door right away.

Exiting through the back doors allows other passengers to start boarding at the front.

If you’re standing, move away from the doors.
This will allow others to board or leave the bus more quickly. Small delays at each stop add up to a longer ride, so preventing those delays gets everyone where they’re going more quickly.

Adding buses

After adding two morning and two afternoon trips to both new lines to make buses less crowded and more reliable, we’re monitoring passenger loads. Things appear to be going more smoothly on the C Line during morning commute hours, but there are still problems with the afternoon commute. We may add more trips to these lines or to connecting bus routes if necessary. We’ve also stationed two extra buses near the C and D lines so we can put them into service quickly if the regular buses are delayed or overcrowded.

Actively managing service

Metro has a control center where a dedicated coordinator actively manages RapidRide service during peak commute hours, communicating with bus drivers to help them keep buses evenly spaced. This is a new approach for us, and continues to improve with experience.

Transit signal priority

Most major intersections on RapidRide corridors have transit signal priority systems. RapidRide buses send signals to traffic lights to make green lights stay green longer or red lights switch to green faster.

C Line transit signal priority systems are up and running at all but one of the intended intersections. D Line systems are now operating at more than half of the intended intersections. Metro is working with the Seattle Department of Transportation to turn on the remaining systems by the end of the year.

We’ll be refining traffic signal timing for both lines over the next six months. After that, we’ll continue to monitor the systems and adjust them as needed. The C and D lines are connected, so as signal priority improves on the D Line, the C Line should provide more reliable service coming out of downtown Seattle.

You’ll be seeing fewer nonworking signs and hooded ORCA readers as we get power and troubleshoot isolated connection problems.

Bus arrival signs and ORCA readers

The real-time bus arrival signs at RapidRide stations depend on network connections that have both hard-wired and wireless components. When a sign isn’t working properly, Metro has to identify the problem before we can fix it. The wireless access point may be faulty and require replacement, or the signal may be interrupted by something physically coming between the sign and its wireless access point (in which case we would move one of the antennas).

As of today, there’s still one arrival sign on the C Line that we haven’t fixed yet. On the D Line, we’re working with Seattle City Light to make permanent electrical connections, which will allow us to turn on the off-board ORCA readers and arrival signs. Experience with the A and B lines tells us that once we’re able to hook up the equipment, turn it on, and see if it’s working, most of it will probably work, with a few isolated issues.

Thanks for your patience

While we’re working to get everything running smoothly, we really appreciate our riders’ patience – and also your comments and suggestions, which help us know where improvements are needed.

Next time: what riders can do to speed up RapidRide