Embark (OKC Metro Bus Service)

[AP]

Enhanced bus service, more police proposed for Oklahoma City | News OK

I can't believe people aren't talking about this. This is what everyone has been begging for.

[shawnw]

I think it's awesome and I hope it's the first of many steps.

Personally I think (and have long thought) they also need to have a district circulator route that goes between BT, MT, Plaza, Western, Uptown, AA, DD, and around again, with at least two, and possibly three buses on the route for good headways. And I mean one that is not free like the 50 is, it's revenue should support itself to some extent. But it's something that, if it ran evenings, I think would be heavily used. I know I would use it. Portions of this route can be phased out as streetcar reaches each district.

[ljbab728]

I can't believe people aren't talking about this. This is what everyone has been begging for.

And just think, this is happening even though Mick got elected instead of you know who.

[LetsTalkTransit]

EMBARK Announces Service Improvements: SW 29 to Receive 30-Minute Weekday Service

OKLAHOMA CITY – Beginning Monday, January 26, EMBARK will make system enhancements to the bus system including increased frequency, additional stops, later service and minor schedule adjustments to improve schedule adherence.

Specifically, the changes will include:

Minor schedule adjustments on routes 002, 005, 008, 009, 012, 013, 014, 018, 023 and 038 that will help schedule adherence.
Route 011 will now operate every 30 minutes on weekdays until 7 p.m.
Routes 011 and 23N will operate until midnight. Between 7 p.m. and midnight, frequency will be every 60 minutes. The new 23N route is similar to 023, but will serve Automobile Alley and the Transit Center weeknights. The new route will operate in lieu of the weekday route 023 starting at 7 p.m.
Additional stops are being added to routes 011 and 23N. Both routes will extend to the Reno Mini-Hub, Downtown Transit Center and connect with EMBARK Link stops.
Existing EMBARK Link designated stops have changed and seven new designated stops have been added.
“Research and our local experience has shown increased frequency leads to increases in ridership,” noted Jason Ferbrache, EMBARK Administrator. Since the changes that took effect in late April, average daily ridership has increased 8% over last year for the same period. “It makes service more convenient for current riders and helps simplify bus use for new riders. When you can walk to a bus stop and know you can catch a bus every 30 minutes, it takes out some of the guess work and our new mobile tools make it easier to plan your trip.”

The increased frequency and evening services are the continuation of service enhancements identified in a study conducted by an international transit research firm Nelson\Nygaard hired by the City of Oklahoma City and the EMBARK board to review and make recommendations for improving the public transit system.

In late April 2014, EMBARK launched the first phase of changes that included increased frequency of bus routes, reduced passenger wait time, reduced passenger travel time and routes that better match demand. EMBARK is making technology improvements which include a mobile trip planner, SMS real-time bus arrival info, new bus stop signage and on-board Wi-Fi.

New schedules and a list of the changes can be found at: Winter 2015 Service Changes - EMBARK

[warreng88]

Why does the bus system not run on May Avenue between 63rd and Memorial? That is such a hot bed of retail I would think that would be a no brainer? Is it because part of it is considered The Village or Nichols Hills?

[TheTravellers]

Why does the bus system not run on May Avenue between 63rd and Memorial? That is such a hot bed of retail I would think that would be a no brainer? Is it because part of it is considered The Village or Nichols Hills?

The Village limits encompass May from Britton to Hefner, but May's not part of Nichols Hills at all, surely something could be worked out with The Village, or just don't stop between Britton and Hefner (which would be weird, but not out of character for OKC's half-a$$ed bus system).

[warreng88]

The Village limits encompass May from Britton to Hefner, but May's not part of Nichols Hills at all, surely something could be worked out with The Village, or just don't stop between Britton and Hefner (which would be weird, but not out of character for OKC's half-a$$ed bus system).

I know the new Uptown Grocery going in just north of Britton on the west side of May is considered The Village, that's why Pete can't get permits for them, so I think both sides of May are considered The Village in a few parts. You are correct that they could just not stop in that area. I am not sure what they can do with that.

[TheTravellers]

I know the new Uptown Grocery going in just north of Britton on the west side of May is considered The Village, that's why Pete can't get permits for them, so I think both sides of May are considered The Village in a few parts. You are correct that they could just not stop in that area. I am not sure what they can do with that.

Yep, here are The Village's limits, all of May from just north of Britton (The Village said the light at Britton/May is OKC when I asked them about the crappy timing on it) to probably just a bit south of Hefner.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Th...f14ee201cfde58

[warreng88]

Beaming to buses: Embark to offer Wi-Fi service

By: Brian Brus The Journal Record July 10, 2015

OKLAHOMA CITY – Embark bus riders will be given access to Wi-Fi Internet service by this fall under an agreement with Satellite and Wireless Solutions.

The Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority approved the deal Friday. It is expected to increase the bus system’s value to riders, particularly businesspeople and college students who have work to do, COTPA spokesman Michael Scroggins said.

“At one time, air conditioning was considered an amenity on public transportation,” he said. “Expectations of service levels change over time.

“That’s one of the things we heard from people who don’t currently ride the bus,” he said. “‘We might consider it if you had Wi-Fi so we can take back the time that we lose during the ride.’”

Cleveland Area Rapid Transit has been providing free Wi-Fi for about two years, CART spokeswoman Vicky Holland said. The 15-bus, fixed-route system that services the University of Oklahoma and the rest of Norman connects to Embark.

“The biggest feedback we got was from the commuters to Oklahoma City,” she said. “We run four times a day to Oklahoma City; they run back and forth twice. So those people who are on the bus the most really appreciated the Wi-Fi. The 70 percent of our riders who are OU students or faculty said getting Wi-Fi was important to them also.”

Satellite and Wireless bid $89,000 to provide enough units for 59 buses and three years of service, the lowest price of four submissions. The company’s proposal also included the option to purchase up to 26 additional units with five years of licensing and support and three years of security. A rebate lowers the final cost by $4,400. The high bid in the group was $650,000 by AEM Group.

The project will be funded 80 percent by a federal Department of Transportation grant and 20 percent by the city budget. The deal will provide opportunities for revenue generation through online ads, Scroggins said. With the exception of agreement to typical terms of use, the system will be free to the public.

[Richard at Remax]

Sorry for being lazy if this has already been discussed.

That being said I just spent the weekend in Vail and surprisingly used their bus system to get around town. The bus system is synced to an app called NextBus. It was real time and it showed the busses in motion on a map and showed how long til they get to the stop and when the next one comes after that, ect. It was also at DIA for the trains.

Does OKC use an app like this? If not I hope they at least use it for the streetcar. It was very easy to use and very helpful.

[shawnw]

I was under the impression that the buses had the GPS tracking hardware and they had SOME kind of software to track them, but that it wasn't released for public use yet? I may be misrecollecting...

[Urban Pioneer]

NextBus is the same system that I believe EMBARK is using and will be used on the new streetcar system.

[csjoerdsma.okc]

I have only been in OKC for a few years, and because of my work schedule, I have never been able to utilize the bus system here. Sometimes I would be able to get to work, but not home, or vice-versa. In a city this large, I couldnt believe when I learned that buses stopped running so early in the evening, or had no service on Sundays. I know recently there have been some improvements, but I still cant believe how far behind we are here in terms of our bus system. I know OKC has always been a car oriented city. Understandable. A lot of cities in the west and southwest are. Is our system here lacking so bad mainly because of budgets, costs? Low ridership? In the midwest where I am from ( WI and MN ) there are cities that have populations under 100,000 that have better coverage of bus routes, as well as hours that run from early morning ( 5am ) to well past midnight, and even a bit later on weekends. Frequency may be cut back on Sundays, but they still operate. Working for the hotel industry, I get asked all the time about transit options from out of towners, and they are quite unimpressed/amazed when I mention you pretty much need a taxi to get around here. It is actually kind of embarrassing. What I think we need to look at, is a map of the Valley Metro system ( Phoenix, AZ ). This is what we need to model our system after, since both PHX and OKC are set up somewhat the same as far as street grids. Again, some population density differences, but it could work. I am just talking about the bus part, not the light rail portion they have in PHX. Approx every mile is a major roadway, going north and south, as well as east and west. you have buses that only travel back and forth down all the major streets, from one end to the other, again, the north-south streets as well as the east-west streets. What you end up with is a way to transfer to a different route every mile, instead of having to travel all the way downtown to a transfer station. Our "hub and spoke" system here in OKC makes so many trips impractical that it is no wonder no one wants to, or is unable to take the bus. If I lived near, lets say, NW 23rd and Council, and wanted to get a bus to the Outlet Shoppes, I would have to ride the bus for an hour, go downtown, transfer, and ride the bus another hour to my destination, and then the same thing back. It is ridiculous. I included a pic of Valley Metro bus routes. It isn't the easiest to see, but you can clearly see the grid pattern of the bus routes. We could have a bus running the length of Penn, May, Portland, Meridian, MacArthur, etc across the city, as well as on east-west streets, Reno, NW 10th, NW 23rd, NW 39th, NW 50th etc.

[Urban Pioneer]

Csjoe, it is basically an issue of historical underfunding, the Hub & Spoke design, sheer scale of the landmass that is OKC, and limited service hours system-wide.

It can only be rectified by forming the Regional Transit Authority. That is the only way to correct public transportation in this city, particularly bus, after 70 years of minimal investment.

And even then, it will be hard to justify service to the underpopulated parts of our city until density improves.

You can get involved though. Join the OKCstreetcar Facebook page and follow the progress. We might have a 2017 vote on many of these issues.

[Rover]

It seems as if we should restrict service to only the highest density neighborhoods with demographics indicating public transportation will be used. We don't have to serve every neighborhood.

[Teo9969]

It seems as if we should restrict service to only the highest density neighborhoods with demographics indicating public transportation will be used. We don't have to serve every neighborhood.

That's what we're already doing, and it's still a pretty deficient system.

[kevinpate]

... We don't have to serve every neighborhood.

Depends. Are there many folk in the dense neighborhoods that will use the system employed in positions located in the less dense, car centric neighborhoods?

[shawnw]

Embark just tweeted that Tulsa's bus system was named the best small transit system in America. Ouch.

[AP]

Seriously?

[cagoklahoma]

The full award name is "Best Small Transit System In America For Cities That Start With The Letter T" They beat out Tacoma and Toledo. In related news, Oklahoma City was just named "Best Transit System In America For Cities That Have Oklahoma In Their Name." Despite accolades like these, people continue to think we need to invest MORE in transportation.

[AP]

Why won't Embark switch to a grid system? What is holding them back from making the change?

I stumbled on this article on Portland making the change back in 82 and how without it the MAX wouldn't be as successful.

Human Transit: portland: the grid is 30 years old ... thank a planner!

[shawnw]

There was a tweet about Houston recently making the change, covering more ground with zero cost increase. But it's not that they JUST went to a grid, they did some demographic analysis to make sure the parts of the grid that were covered were where people lived and worked, which is the kind of thing being looked at for the NW corridor BRT.

[ljbab728]

http://www.okc.gov/news/2015_10/OKC_...s_Smarter.html

OKC Transit Gets Smarter

EMBARK Adds Wi-Fi to Buses and Launches Open Data Portal

(Oct. 15, 2015) – Now Oklahoma City transit customers can say Hi to Wi-Fi. EMBARK recently added free Wi-Fi on all buses, allowing users to check email, text and access the internet. Riders will also enjoy new mobile tools that make navigating the Oklahoma City transit system even easier. Through a partnership with Google Maps, transit users can now easily plan their journey and know exactly when the bus is coming in real-time – all from their mobile device.

“This new technology will make it easier for customers to use the system on the go,” said Jason Ferbrache, EMBARK Administrator. “The improvements are part of EMBARK’s commitment to make transit the best transportation choice for our community and visitors alike. With the addition of free Wi-Fi and the availability of real-time information through mobile apps like Google Maps and Moovit, it’s more attractive than ever to board the bus, relax, surf the web, text your friends and leave the hassle of driving to us.”

Google Maps allows riders to easily plan their journey by entering a destination to view the quickest route options and real time departure schedules. Users can also plan future trips by adjusting the departure and arrival times or clicking on the stop nearest to them to know when the next bus will arrive.

"We are pleased to welcome EMBARK to Google Maps. This partnership shows EMBARK’s commitment to Open Data and best serving and attracting riders who depend on technology for their everyday needs,” said Matt Wong, Strategic Partner Manager at Google. “Together we can provide useful and accurate information to help people quickly get to where they want to go.”

This is the first time Open Data has been available for Oklahoma City transit information. Static and real- time transit information is now available to developers and the community through EMBARK’s developer portal found on embarkok.com. By making EMBARK’s real-time data publicly available, third-party developers such as Google Maps, Moovit, and others are able to enhance and broaden the range of useful tools for Central Oklahoma’s public transit commuters.

Over the course of the next 12 months, customer information panels will be added to EMBARK bus stops, detailing how to check the real-time status of their bus via SMS or text. Users may simply text “EMBARK” followed by the three-digit route number and stop number separated with a space. Route and stop numbers can be found at each stop and at EMBARK - Forward Together.

[shawnw]

No wi-fi at the transit center though, when I asked on twitter. Just FYI.

[TheTravellers]

Awesome, they're doing something other cities did 10 years ago, yep, that's about the right timeline... At least they're actually doing it.