Bus Stop Balancing, Explained

Perce Transit has created an explainer video to illustrate the reasoning and actions behind an ongoing project to balance bus stops in the transit agency's service area in Pierce County, Washington.

The Pierce Transit website for the project includes the following explanation of the ongoing project:

Pierce Transit is conducting a “Bus Stop Balancing” project. The goal of this project is to speed up trips on Pierce Transit bus rides. We’re doing that by conducting a thorough examination of each bus stop and consolidating, removing or relocating stops, based on specific criteria, at the Sept. 19, 2021, service change. The project also aims to increase safety, ensure buses are running on time, increase ridership and potentially give us the opportunity to add more service hours with the cost savings.

The website also provides this explanation o the reasoning behind the effort to reduce the number of bus stops in the system:

When bus stops are too close together, it slows an entire transit system down. That can negatively impact ridership, as one of the primary reasons people don’t ride transit is because it can take longer to reach their destination.

The website also includes the video, shared above, to further illustrate the project and the concept of bus stop balancing.

Hat tip to Stephen Fesler and The Urbanist for sharing the news about the project and the video.