Tell Your Story: Meet Sarah
There are at least two sides to every story: quantitative and qualitative. One without the other is an incomplete picture. Though many technical entities love to tout their numerical analysis, its real purpose is to “explain what is observed” qualitatively. The numbers are meant to help prove or disprove the stories being told.
For example, ridership numbers and measures of distance can point us toward bus stop balancing. But only the people using those stops know which ones have sidewalks leading up to them. Only the drivers know which stops have hindered visibility upon arrival. The numbers may say eliminate 10 stops while the people say 3 and so the professionals eliminate 6, ensuring each stop is walkable and no one is needing to walk more than .5 miles to a stop.
Furthermore, it is extremely important to measure the right things in the right ways, for accurate analysis and informed decision making.
Meet Sarah. A 20-something, single mother living in South Baltimore. She depends heavily on the bus but is looking forward to the day she can buy a car. Five days a week she rides the City Link Silver to the Metro Subway to MTA 89 to reach job number one on Reisterstown Rd in Owings Mills, a 77-minute trip.
After job number one she skateboards the 1.3 miles back to the subway, weather permitting, to catch the Metro Subway ending at the Penn-North Station, a 43-minute trip. Not too far from there is her 1-year-old son who hangs out with his grandfather during the week. She uses her break in between jobs to play with her little guy because she won’t have time to pick him up later that day and drop him off the next morning. Instead he usually stays with his grandfather 5 days out of the week until Sarah has a few days off.
After the short family visit, Sarah heads to job number 2 in Charles Village. Often, she skateboards the 1.8-mile trip to Charles Village because it’s faster and less hassle than taking the bus.
Her last trip of the day, after job number 2, is from Charles Village to her home in South Baltimore, a 50-minute trip on the City Link Silver.
Her story highlights two things that many Baltimoreans encounter:
1. Inadequate frequency: Sarah is originally from New York where frequency and quick transfers are king. She has no problem with multiple transfers because she has experienced how well a high frequency network can work to keep commute and wait times at a minimum. Yet, Baltimore’s high frequency is not working for Sarah. Even when traveling in an area with many high frequency routes, Penn-North to Charles Village, she finds it faster to skateboard the 1.8 miles to job number 2.
2. Long commute times: When we compare car to transit for her daily routes, we see a difference of 1.33 hours or 79.8 minutes. Sarah is spending almost 7 hours more each week commuting via transit than if she drove. No wonder she is looking forward to the day she can afford a car. This speaks to how fast is the ride? Or speed.
If we compare two of the modes she uses to reach job 1, the bus (shown in grey)and metro subway (shown in green) we can see major differences in speed. The metro subway takes her about 12 miles in 25 minutes, while the City Link Silver takes her 6 miles in 27 minutes.
Sarah’s story may sound extreme but…
…36% of kids in Maryland live with a single mother.
…the average transit commute time is 55 minutes, almost double the average commute via car of 30 minutes.
…7.6 million Americans are multiple job holders (work 2 or more jobs).
Sarah is just one voice but she is not alone in her commuting struggles.
If you’d like to Tell Your Story, please visit HowsTheRide.Org.
