Upper Saloon

On the bus home today there was a guy sitting in the seats in front of me watching hardcore pornography on his mobile phone. He sat sideways on both seats, laying out, with his earphones quite audibly blaring out the various moans etc. He held his phone conspicuously at eye level, not a care in the world who else was around. I was reading a magazine, sitting right behind him.
I didn't quite know how to react. Smokers on the bus I can easily deal with, they evil disributers of death, and I have my mind firmly made up on them. But this was something different. Part of me wanted to roll up my magazine and hit him over the head with it, tut tutting down its barrel. Then I thought, well I suppose he's not hurting anyone, and to be honest its a little sad. He got off at my stop, I was unaware I was living in pervert ground zero.
I suppose, new technology constantly throws up new frontiers of what is acceptable and what is not. For instance, I have a problem with people texting someone on their mobile phone while engaged in conversation with me, or someone, while in mid conversation, answering their phone (without appology) and starting a new chat while muggins here sits in silence watching his tea go cold!
People find their own personal standards on this new polite frontier, and I guess personaly, I must be cool with someone watching porn on his/my bus ride home. Maybe I would have drawn the line if he had gotten his cock out though.



I've recently moved my blog to myspace

The Bigger Picture

The benefits to the commuter outlined in the accompanying post are many. Departure time is assured, route is direct and efficient, transport is localized. However the new routing system cannot work independently. Lets imagine the people of Firhouse/Ballycullen are happy with their new faster route to the city, there are however other commuters who are not being served by the new route. These people need to get to Tallaght to the west or Terenure to the East (both previously served on the original route). This problem is addressed by the introduction of a transfer based ticketing system. Many cities around the world currently use a transfer system, either using a time sensitive model or finite transfer system.Dublin is gridded with routes travelling roughly North/South and East /West. A town like Firhouse/Ballycullen might be sistered with a Northern equivalent, an example might be Finglas. Here's how a common journey might take place;
A commuter needs to get from Cabra to Tallaght. He/she simply takes their locally based North/South route, traveling south via the City Center, until they reach an appropriate East/West juction. They disembark at the juntion, with their still valid transfer ticket, and travel in a roughly straight route west to their intended destination.A gridded route system would be highly understandable and digest able for the traveller who does not wish to travel to the City Center only.

Solving Dublin's Transport Problem

So, whats wrong with Dublin's Bus system? Well everything really, its slow, overpriced, a little dangerous and doesn't really work as a "system" at all. I feel the problem with the routing is inherently flawed in that it is Profit Based as opposed to Destination Based.

Heres an example; the 46A is Dublin Bus' most successful route, the main reason being that it runs directly from the City Centre to Dun Laoghaire. People know exactly what there getting when they board and pay their fare; A quick, direct no nonsense journey.Lets contrast this to another bus that runs to Dun Laoghaire, the infamous 75. This service is a mess. It meanders all over south Dublin desperately trying to pick up every passenger possible in an attempt to make a margin. As a consequence the journey time is unsustainable for any commuter wishing to travel on any part of its ill-planned line from Tallaght to Dun Laoghaire. Unfortunately this situation is the rule as opposed to the exception.

Now, in Dublin Bus' defense they are victims of Ireland's over reliance on the private car, but instead of offering a quality alternative to this gridlock, the routing philosophy only contributes to it. Here's the cycle of decreasing service;

Journey is slow (due to congestion) and is not profitable,

therefore

Route is changed (to gather more commuters/fares) but only hits more congestion on its new (longer) route,

therefore

Journey is slower

Ireland is the most car reliant society in the world, beating even the U.S., an incredible fact, and with this current thinking for public transport in place its easy to see how we got here and how, unless a radicle rethink is put in place, Ireland and Dublin in particular will continue to strangle itself with congestion.
So whats the solution? Easy, Dublin Bus just needs to think in terms of Destination as opposed to Profit. And ironically with new philosophy in place it will become self sustaining and (gasp) profitable.
Heres how it works. Above is an example of a current bus route, in this case the 49, running from Tallaght to the City Center. The route is highlighted in RED. Although running from Tallaght to the City Center, this bus only "serves" the people of Firhouse and Ballycullen. This is their only means of public transport, the vast majority of who wish to travel to the City exclusively. A straight line indicates the fastest route from Firhouse/Ballycullen to the City. As you can see the current route diverts away from this somewhat. The alternative route, highlighted in BLUE, would be a more efficient routing.
What I propose is that all towns in Dublin are given there own bus, with the most direct route possible to the City Center, starting and terminating at a convenient central, local hub.