Hopefully the new CARTA board, appointed in February, including Johan de Nysschen, will be able to point CARTA in a direction that will help make it accessible and useable. Any transportation method, be it bus or bike or car, is considered “preferred" because it is reliable. Improving CARTA’s reliability needs to be it first step toward becoming useable.
Bus frequency on the #4 route (CARTA’s busiest) is haphazard, with buses coming between 0 and 45 minutes of their published, scheduled time. If it took between 0 and 45 minutes to start your car every morning you would probably use it as often as people use CARTA.
If your watch or phone had a function or an app that told you when your car would start, that might let you use to more often, since you could judge whether that projected start time would give you enough time to get to work.
Without a coherent and holistic bus prioritization lane program in the city, it is difficult for the buses to hit their scheduled times. However, to serve potential ridership better, having an app that allows potential riders to know, for sure, where the bus on any route is, and decide whether that would make a ride on the bus a reasonable option for their transportation needs, would greatly increase travel reliability.
There is something like a tracking app for CARTA, but it only tracks a few buses, sometimes, and never the busiest route’s buses. Fixing this app, to help all of us potential riders (myself included), would be a huge step toward raising CARTA’s accessibility and usability.
Shannon Mikus
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I agree wholeheartedly with Shannon. With city traffic increasing, it is vitally important that CARTA become a reliable alternative to driving for at least some Chattanoogans.
I occasionally ride the shuttle to work and find it to be pleasant once I'm on board (reading a book or catching up on emails while someone else does the driving is much better than staring at the bumper in front of me), but the reliability of scheduling and the comfort of the bus-stops leaves much to be desired.
It's going to take investment from the whole city, not just CARTA, to truly make public transit to become that alternative, but there is some low hanging fruit. This includes:
Improving the tracking on the CARTA website and app.
The free shuttles which serve North Shore, Downtown, and St Elmo ought to be on a viable schedule for commuters. Start the routes at 7 a.m.
Add NoogaNet wi-fi hotspots to the shuttle stations so riders can check schedules.
There are also some stretch goals:
Non-cash payment options (could include card payments, digital payments, or refillable rider cards) or, even better, free-fare.
Focus on improving service to key areas with high ridership potential. Areas that already have density, walkability, and proximity (the River to Ridge Area comes to mind) have more potential to increase ridership than sprawling areas with no sidewalks.
Making bus stops comfortable and safe. Benches are the bare minimum. Shelters are really key. Thanks to ChattanoogaUrbanistSociety for filling this gap in the meantime.
Nathan Bird