canberra: a new circulator network for the national core
Washington DC has its downtown circulator, and now the Washington DC of Australia, Canberra, has one too. What's more, my clients in Canberra created their circulator for almost zero in new operating costs, using an old trick of mine. Starting next week, four color-coded lines will provide frequent links among all the major toursit attractions, government buildings, commercial districts, and interchange points in the core area of the Australian capital.
For the whole brochure on the circulator, click here: PDF
Where did all this new service come from? Most of it was already there, but was presented as a tangle of several infrequent lines. These were just too hard to figure out for someone making quick trips around the core. Short trips are very time-sensitive, and that includes the time it takes to figure them out. So circulators have to be frequent and simple.
For several years, Canberra has been discussing options for creating a shuttle system to link these core destinations. Instead, I suggested that we look at whether bus service that's already there could be branded to form legible and frequent circulator lines. It turned out to be possible, with only slight service additions and some careful revision of timetables.
The Gold Line and Green Line are each created out of a pair of existing routes that are every 30 minutes when separate but every 20 minutes or better when running on top of each other. When they're separate, they're just Routes 2, 3, 4, and 5, each doing its own business. But when Route 2 and 3 are together, that common segment is branded as the Gold Line. Likewise, the segment where 4 and 5 are on top of each other will be called the Green Line.
Signage and new marketing will highlight that you can use these colored lines to circulate around the core, and you simply don't have to care what the line numbers are. People don't have to remember that to get from the City station to the National Library they need the 2 or the 3. Instead, they can just remember the Gold Line.
At the same time, Canberra is re-branding the two existing Rapid bus corridors as the Blue Rapid and Red Rapid. The Red Rapid happens to be one simple line with no variants, but the Blue Rapid is formed of several overlaid lines, all numbered in the 300s, that do different things on outer branches but all run along the same Rapid segment linking several major town centers. Together, the Red and Blue Rapids will form the rapid-transit backbone of Canberra's all-bus network. As it happens, they also link some useful dots within the core area, so they're on the map as well.
This branding technique is often useful in relatively small cities that have a few strong frequent corridors. I first suggested it in Bellingham, Washington, a university town north of Seattle, and this shelter displays one of the results.
Often in small cities, these frequent segments are served by several different routes overlaid, but the pile of route numbers makes the service seem complex. The color brands let people ignore that complexity and see the frequency clearly instead. And since frequency is the foundation of freedom for transit riders, it should always be made as visible as possible!
For the whole brochure on the circulator, click here: PDF
Where did all this new service come from? Most of it was already there, but was presented as a tangle of several infrequent lines. These were just too hard to figure out for someone making quick trips around the core. Short trips are very time-sensitive, and that includes the time it takes to figure them out. So circulators have to be frequent and simple.
For several years, Canberra has been discussing options for creating a shuttle system to link these core destinations. Instead, I suggested that we look at whether bus service that's already there could be branded to form legible and frequent circulator lines. It turned out to be possible, with only slight service additions and some careful revision of timetables.
The Gold Line and Green Line are each created out of a pair of existing routes that are every 30 minutes when separate but every 20 minutes or better when running on top of each other. When they're separate, they're just Routes 2, 3, 4, and 5, each doing its own business. But when Route 2 and 3 are together, that common segment is branded as the Gold Line. Likewise, the segment where 4 and 5 are on top of each other will be called the Green Line.
Signage and new marketing will highlight that you can use these colored lines to circulate around the core, and you simply don't have to care what the line numbers are. People don't have to remember that to get from the City station to the National Library they need the 2 or the 3. Instead, they can just remember the Gold Line.
At the same time, Canberra is re-branding the two existing Rapid bus corridors as the Blue Rapid and Red Rapid. The Red Rapid happens to be one simple line with no variants, but the Blue Rapid is formed of several overlaid lines, all numbered in the 300s, that do different things on outer branches but all run along the same Rapid segment linking several major town centers. Together, the Red and Blue Rapids will form the rapid-transit backbone of Canberra's all-bus network. As it happens, they also link some useful dots within the core area, so they're on the map as well.
Often in small cities, these frequent segments are served by several different routes overlaid, but the pile of route numbers makes the service seem complex. The color brands let people ignore that complexity and see the frequency clearly instead. And since frequency is the foundation of freedom for transit riders, it should always be made as visible as possible!
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