Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

AATA proposed route changes for Fall 2008, preliminary analysis

The AATA has announced proposed changes to the schedule for this fall. New maps and schedules are not out yet, but there are descriptions of the changes. Here's a breakdown of what wins and what loses with the change.

There's more information and discussion of this on:
- Arbor Update
- Get Downtown
- Ann Arbor News
- Ann Arbor Is Overrated
links to follow when they all get around to writing about it

The short summary, I think, is that the bus system is shifting its service to improve route frequency to the west side of town, cutting service on routes that have low ridership, and shaving a trip here and there. I don't know the total number of service hours before and after (no data yet).

Notably missing from this set of changes is any kind of express bus Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti routing (the mythical 4X route), and any routing that goes directly down Maple/Stadium (the mythical "east-west connector" which could go Sky High to Arborland in one straight shot).

Who wins:
- Route 8 is every 15 minutes! The biggest win
- Route 12UM (Miller) adds service to Sky High, 15 min service on Miller Rd
- minor tweaks to the 4 to speed the journey
- one extra 4 afternoon bus as far as Arborland
- late night (10:45) Blake to Pioneer on the 7

Who loses:
- late trips on the 1U
- evening service on the 3
- latest trip Ypsi-Ann Arbor on the 5
- 12UL goes way (replaced by improved 8 service)
- mid-day 13
- mid-day 14
- summer evening, sunday 15
- 16 changes which I can't parse which probably affect shopping trips

More as I get maps.

Placeshout - http://www.placeshout.com - Twitter meets Yelp with a dash of Digg

Placeshout is a simple application for taking short (100 character) notes on locations. You look up a place and add it to the map with a brief annotation; you can vote up/down other people's notes a la Digg and the results are ranked for display.

The ultra-short reviews are reminiscent of Twitter and get away from the prolix spew of Yelpers who go on for page after page about their favorite or unfavorite burrito when a simple "michimex" designation would do.

The Ann Arbor nova mob descended with its characteristic nova fury, and at the moment Ann Arbor is the #1 mapped city, three Michigan cities are in the top 5 and four Washtenaw County residents are in the top 10 users. The voting system exposed deep-seated bifurcations in the perspective on the Old Town ("the world's saddest michimex burrito" vs. "neighborhood bar with live music") and universal admiration for Frank's ("Like the Acropolis, Frank's is the fortified high point of Ann Arbor.")

More from Brian Kerr: Placeshout: a brand new colony

Late last week, Catherine twitterinvited folks to bulk up Ann Arbor on Placeshout. Three days later, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are the first and third most “shouted” cities, with San Francisco coming in second. This reminds me of the early, happy days of upcoming.org, when Ann Arbor was one of the locations with the most user and event churn.

Technorati Tags: annarbor, burrito, maps, neogeography, novamob, placeshout

AATA Route 5 student move-in detour details

The AATA's #5 route is detoured during student move-in. When I rode the bus yesterday, a number of people were visibly upset at bus stops because their bus had not come for an hour. Today's bus took a different detour than yesterday's. I plotted everything I could find, and marked the nearest good stop that was reachable by all of the various detour routes that are plausible.

This contradicts the posted information, which says

Route 5 Packard To Ann Arbor: Regular route on Packard to State to William to Fourth to the Blake Transit Center. There will be no service on Thompson Street.

To Ypsilanti or Meijer: Regular route from the Blake Transit Center to William and Thompson, continuing on William to State to Packard to resume regular route. There will be no service on Thompson Street.

I don't know if the Packard detour was a planned detour from the detour (traffic was mighty bad) or a rogue driver, but I can easily imagine first-time new transit riders being angry and upset.

UPDATE:

Dear Edward Vielmetti:

That was an error on our part and we apologize for the mistake.

Sincerely,
The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority

View Larger Map

Technorati Tags: 48104, 48109, aata, annarbor, bus, detour, map, neogeography, theride