Thank you Reece for an extraordinarily well reasoned article. As a Brit I cannot comment on the details you give about Canadian cities. But I can say that the 7-days-a-week night buses in London are one of (several) reasons why London buses are so much better than in the rest of the Britain.
I entirely agree with your last eleven paragraphs, summed up in your sentence 'Roads don’t suddenly shut down at 1:30am, and nor should public transport.'
I agree with your assessment Reece. It is worth noting that it is common for just one half of the transit trip to occur at night. This is especially true of those who work the night/graveyard shift. But it is true of folks that want to go out to the clubs at night, after work. On the ridership/coverage scale, it may have surprisingly good *overall* ridership, while also providing needed "coverage" for riders. If the bus doesn't run when your shift is over, you may end up with a very long walk, or feel like you need to buy a car, which means night service acts like a coverage route. But it also means the loss of daytime transit travel, when the extra rider is very cost effective (increasing ridership). In that way, night service often acts as a "loss leader", when it comes to ridership (and should be given more credit than a lot of people assume).
Hey Reece, I recently had a night out in Seattle and took the night bus home. The thing that stuck out to me afterwards was how I _didn’t_ think about taking the night bus. I just got on the exact same bus line I took going out, but this time at 2am.
I feel like having separate night bus lines would be confusing, with the exception of the ones that replace the rapid transit. Similarly, in Seattle we have a bus whose night bus route (124) gets extended to the airport to replace the Link when it goes to sleep.
One little known feature of the night bus in Seattle is that the drivers are supposed to let you off at any point if you go to the front and ask them. I didn’t even know about this until I looked up more info about the network, but it would be helpful if it decreases the amount of walking out late in the dark to get home, thus making the night bus feel safer.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with our night bus network although it could probably use a bit more frequency.
Yep! That sounds good to me! IIRC Seattle has a much better nighttime bus network than Vancouver, extending a bus to the airport is one of those good touches!
I feel like there should be a better way to advertise the night services we have. People in my life who are on the fence about transit, or live outside of Toronto but go there for concerts/sports/what have you, often either know that *some* sort of service exists but aren't really sure of what that service is, or don't even know that overnight service exists in the first place. I grew up in York Region and even here we have 24h service on some routes and the only reason half my friends know about it is because I told them. Even in Toronto proper I've talked to people who knew about night service because they saw some buses and streetcars at 2 am but would still Uber home/find a place to stay because they had no idea that the subway lines get replaced with buses overnight. When I was in high school I was out super late with my friend downtown and I had a panic attack after we missed the last subway train thinking we'd be stuck until the morning. Obviously some of that goes into us being careless teens, but careless teens exist and are sometimes gonna be out and about at night and they should actually know that this is a service they could use without googling "is the subway 24 hours" seeing the answer is "no" freaking out about it and then scrolling further down and clicking on a bunch of links to eventually see that it's replaced by buses lol
Yeah I bungled up my point entirely lmao sorry. 1. It only applies to two buses (98/99) and 2. It's not even fully accurate because there's about an hour and a half gap between the last departure of the 98/99 and the first departure of the 98 and 99 buses the next morning. My point was mainly supposed to be that my friends are always surprised that the Yonge St bus runs past midnight even though we all lived along Yonge St for years idk why I said it the way I did my bad
Hong Kong have dropped the frequency of all its overnight bus routes, what was 15-20 minutes headway are now 23-30 minutes, what was 30 minutes headway are now 60 minutes headway, and new neighborhood no longer get overnight services, citing reduced ridership.
Expanded metro network providing service during 12-1am and 5-6am also further reduce commercial viability of these buses, causing bus companies more determined to reduce overnight service to cut losses.
On the other hand, minibuses that operate overnight in Hong Kong also have to reduce frequency despite profitable and occasionally being full, due to difficulty in securing drivers willing to work overnight.
It have been commented that, the popularization of digital entertainment and multimedia communication through smartphone have greatly reduced the need of people seeking entertainment on the street until midnight, thus weakening overnight service demand.
On the other hand, I have also heard of people from Tokyo commenting against overnight transit service, said that a.) existence of last train can help promote a more healthy work life schedule forcing people to go home by the last train, b.) it would be harsh to require urban bus drivers working overnights, c.) public transit shouldn't try to compete against private taxi service which are designed to cover low demand times, and d.) it is unjust and unfair to use fare revenue from when most people ride the transit service to subsidize specialized travel demand of a minority group and people who indeed beed to travel during such hours should pay for their own travel cost by getting their own vehicle.
Good piece Reece. I have taken light rail in Baltimore at night. The problem is crime. A person alone in the inner city at night is an ideal target for a mugging. They stand a more than a small chance of being caught shot in the crossfire of marauding gangs. I was scared every moment I was at the light rail stop. It's bad enough in the day and you are going to be a victim if you rely on public transit in any large run down city in the US.
This is not tied directly to night buses, but it is important consideration for night-time transit services, but will RM Transit do a piece on security on transit networks?
There have been some high profile incidents on TTC this year, including people being pushed off subway platforms, individuals being shot and stabbed at random at TTC stations, and that poor young woman that was set on fire at Kennedy today.
How can you encourage people to ride and build their lives around transit services if the transit authorities cannot maintain security at their mass transit facilities?
Its a topic I am frankly not well equipped to opine on, but I will say high profile events like this definitely distort perceptions of safety. Over a million people ride the TTC everyday, the overwhelming majority without incident.
You are quite correct that these high-profile incidents can distort public perceptions of safety. That is why security operations are so critical for a high functioning transit system with high ridership.
As you mention, the vast majority of TTC trips are done safely and without incident. But public perception can create its own reality and discourage folks from riding transit. When it comes to security, it is too easy for a system to gain a poor reputation, earned or not.
I think it is also worth noting that for each high profile event that does makes the news, there are numerous events that do not get coverage or even get reported to authorities. They do not affect TTC operations, but they do become a feature of the daily grind for regular TTC users.
I am a daily rider of the TTC. Over the past few weeks, I have been threatened with a hypodermic needle while riding the metro, threatened to be murdered while riding the 505 streetcar, and spit on while waiting for the 505 streetcar. I can laugh these minor incidents off -- I was probably never in any real danger -- but they do add up over time to make me question my personal safety while using the TTC. I am not special, and would assume other regular riders of the TTC could share similar stories. High profile security events, such as the one yesterday at Kennedy, bring the security issue to the fore.
We as transit advocates need to take security seriously and think deeply about such issues are part of our advocacy. If we do not, transit opponents will use security concerns as fodder to argue against transit.
I guess the tricky part about it, is that transit security can only go so far. The security problems that manifest themselves on a transit network are reflective of broader law and order issues within a city. Because of this, there is little room for transit authorities to address root causes. They can only react and try to keep a lid on things.
Yeah, you are absolutely correct and this is what I mentally came to. Ultimately, you can only really pull levers and hope outcomes are good. IMO one of the best levers is just having more people riding on the system!
As someone who's lived in and seen cities that have most activities stop at 9PM - 10PM, I'm wondering how and why transit officials would eagerly welcome night service.
Additionally there is more talk nowadays about wellness, proper rest and actual work-life balance. Much of this has been brought on by the pandemic causing people to reexamine their overall schedules.
The one thing I've never understood is why the insistence still on a 9-5 schedule? Why still have a rush hour or AM/PM commutes? If a 24/7 economy is still a worthy goal, then why not have shifts the whole day/night through? So we'd then have 9-5 become 0900-1700, 1000-1800, ..., 2100 - 0500, 2200-0600, etc. full coverage. Then more people from employees to managers including those at transit agencies would agree with "The Night Life is the Good Life."
There definetly is such a shift in major cities, but a lot of people naturally are tied to the 9-5, so you only see that critical mass in the largest cities.
Thank you Reece for an extraordinarily well reasoned article. As a Brit I cannot comment on the details you give about Canadian cities. But I can say that the 7-days-a-week night buses in London are one of (several) reasons why London buses are so much better than in the rest of the Britain.
I entirely agree with your last eleven paragraphs, summed up in your sentence 'Roads don’t suddenly shut down at 1:30am, and nor should public transport.'
I agree with your assessment Reece. It is worth noting that it is common for just one half of the transit trip to occur at night. This is especially true of those who work the night/graveyard shift. But it is true of folks that want to go out to the clubs at night, after work. On the ridership/coverage scale, it may have surprisingly good *overall* ridership, while also providing needed "coverage" for riders. If the bus doesn't run when your shift is over, you may end up with a very long walk, or feel like you need to buy a car, which means night service acts like a coverage route. But it also means the loss of daytime transit travel, when the extra rider is very cost effective (increasing ridership). In that way, night service often acts as a "loss leader", when it comes to ridership (and should be given more credit than a lot of people assume).
Excellent points here Ross! Especially with regard to half of a trip not being made in the overnight, thats probably virtually always the case!
Hey Reece, I recently had a night out in Seattle and took the night bus home. The thing that stuck out to me afterwards was how I _didn’t_ think about taking the night bus. I just got on the exact same bus line I took going out, but this time at 2am.
I feel like having separate night bus lines would be confusing, with the exception of the ones that replace the rapid transit. Similarly, in Seattle we have a bus whose night bus route (124) gets extended to the airport to replace the Link when it goes to sleep.
One little known feature of the night bus in Seattle is that the drivers are supposed to let you off at any point if you go to the front and ask them. I didn’t even know about this until I looked up more info about the network, but it would be helpful if it decreases the amount of walking out late in the dark to get home, thus making the night bus feel safer.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with our night bus network although it could probably use a bit more frequency.
Yep! That sounds good to me! IIRC Seattle has a much better nighttime bus network than Vancouver, extending a bus to the airport is one of those good touches!
I feel like there should be a better way to advertise the night services we have. People in my life who are on the fence about transit, or live outside of Toronto but go there for concerts/sports/what have you, often either know that *some* sort of service exists but aren't really sure of what that service is, or don't even know that overnight service exists in the first place. I grew up in York Region and even here we have 24h service on some routes and the only reason half my friends know about it is because I told them. Even in Toronto proper I've talked to people who knew about night service because they saw some buses and streetcars at 2 am but would still Uber home/find a place to stay because they had no idea that the subway lines get replaced with buses overnight. When I was in high school I was out super late with my friend downtown and I had a panic attack after we missed the last subway train thinking we'd be stuck until the morning. Obviously some of that goes into us being careless teens, but careless teens exist and are sometimes gonna be out and about at night and they should actually know that this is a service they could use without googling "is the subway 24 hours" seeing the answer is "no" freaking out about it and then scrolling further down and clicking on a bunch of links to eventually see that it's replaced by buses lol
Iirc, York doesn’t have 24 hour service?
Yeah I bungled up my point entirely lmao sorry. 1. It only applies to two buses (98/99) and 2. It's not even fully accurate because there's about an hour and a half gap between the last departure of the 98/99 and the first departure of the 98 and 99 buses the next morning. My point was mainly supposed to be that my friends are always surprised that the Yonge St bus runs past midnight even though we all lived along Yonge St for years idk why I said it the way I did my bad
Ah makes sense!
Hong Kong have dropped the frequency of all its overnight bus routes, what was 15-20 minutes headway are now 23-30 minutes, what was 30 minutes headway are now 60 minutes headway, and new neighborhood no longer get overnight services, citing reduced ridership.
Expanded metro network providing service during 12-1am and 5-6am also further reduce commercial viability of these buses, causing bus companies more determined to reduce overnight service to cut losses.
On the other hand, minibuses that operate overnight in Hong Kong also have to reduce frequency despite profitable and occasionally being full, due to difficulty in securing drivers willing to work overnight.
It have been commented that, the popularization of digital entertainment and multimedia communication through smartphone have greatly reduced the need of people seeking entertainment on the street until midnight, thus weakening overnight service demand.
On the other hand, I have also heard of people from Tokyo commenting against overnight transit service, said that a.) existence of last train can help promote a more healthy work life schedule forcing people to go home by the last train, b.) it would be harsh to require urban bus drivers working overnights, c.) public transit shouldn't try to compete against private taxi service which are designed to cover low demand times, and d.) it is unjust and unfair to use fare revenue from when most people ride the transit service to subsidize specialized travel demand of a minority group and people who indeed beed to travel during such hours should pay for their own travel cost by getting their own vehicle.
Good piece Reece. I have taken light rail in Baltimore at night. The problem is crime. A person alone in the inner city at night is an ideal target for a mugging. They stand a more than a small chance of being caught shot in the crossfire of marauding gangs. I was scared every moment I was at the light rail stop. It's bad enough in the day and you are going to be a victim if you rely on public transit in any large run down city in the US.
This is not tied directly to night buses, but it is important consideration for night-time transit services, but will RM Transit do a piece on security on transit networks?
There have been some high profile incidents on TTC this year, including people being pushed off subway platforms, individuals being shot and stabbed at random at TTC stations, and that poor young woman that was set on fire at Kennedy today.
How can you encourage people to ride and build their lives around transit services if the transit authorities cannot maintain security at their mass transit facilities?
I would love RM Transit's take on these issues.
Its a topic I am frankly not well equipped to opine on, but I will say high profile events like this definitely distort perceptions of safety. Over a million people ride the TTC everyday, the overwhelming majority without incident.
You are quite correct that these high-profile incidents can distort public perceptions of safety. That is why security operations are so critical for a high functioning transit system with high ridership.
As you mention, the vast majority of TTC trips are done safely and without incident. But public perception can create its own reality and discourage folks from riding transit. When it comes to security, it is too easy for a system to gain a poor reputation, earned or not.
I think it is also worth noting that for each high profile event that does makes the news, there are numerous events that do not get coverage or even get reported to authorities. They do not affect TTC operations, but they do become a feature of the daily grind for regular TTC users.
I am a daily rider of the TTC. Over the past few weeks, I have been threatened with a hypodermic needle while riding the metro, threatened to be murdered while riding the 505 streetcar, and spit on while waiting for the 505 streetcar. I can laugh these minor incidents off -- I was probably never in any real danger -- but they do add up over time to make me question my personal safety while using the TTC. I am not special, and would assume other regular riders of the TTC could share similar stories. High profile security events, such as the one yesterday at Kennedy, bring the security issue to the fore.
We as transit advocates need to take security seriously and think deeply about such issues are part of our advocacy. If we do not, transit opponents will use security concerns as fodder to argue against transit.
I agree completely, I just don't know how best to tackle the issue.
I guess the tricky part about it, is that transit security can only go so far. The security problems that manifest themselves on a transit network are reflective of broader law and order issues within a city. Because of this, there is little room for transit authorities to address root causes. They can only react and try to keep a lid on things.
In this way, transit security is one of those classic Wicked Problems (https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/wicked-problem/about/What-is-a-wicked-problem).
Yeah, you are absolutely correct and this is what I mentally came to. Ultimately, you can only really pull levers and hope outcomes are good. IMO one of the best levers is just having more people riding on the system!
As someone who's lived in and seen cities that have most activities stop at 9PM - 10PM, I'm wondering how and why transit officials would eagerly welcome night service.
Additionally there is more talk nowadays about wellness, proper rest and actual work-life balance. Much of this has been brought on by the pandemic causing people to reexamine their overall schedules.
The one thing I've never understood is why the insistence still on a 9-5 schedule? Why still have a rush hour or AM/PM commutes? If a 24/7 economy is still a worthy goal, then why not have shifts the whole day/night through? So we'd then have 9-5 become 0900-1700, 1000-1800, ..., 2100 - 0500, 2200-0600, etc. full coverage. Then more people from employees to managers including those at transit agencies would agree with "The Night Life is the Good Life."
There definetly is such a shift in major cities, but a lot of people naturally are tied to the 9-5, so you only see that critical mass in the largest cities.