ZEN and the Art of Public Transportation

Imagination is a powerful tool to get you going in a particular direction. I was interested to hear what Selma and Shelley thought in terms of the Zen of Public Transportation (PT). Here's a summary:

Selma Zen
- I know where I am now
- I know where I have to get off

Shelley Zen
- bus arrives 30 sec after waiting for it
- I get a seat
- no crazies

Even though Selma and Shelley have different views about Zen PT, I think most people want a balance between UTILITY and EXPERIENCE. Selma's view is purely UTILITY (or functional) where as Shelley's view is more EXPERIENCE. After poking around the web, reading some articles, and thinking about Zen PT some more, I've narrowed Zen PT down to 4 points:


ZEN PT
1. Ease of use (experience)
2. Effectiveness (utility)
3. Comfort (experience)
4. Aesthetics (experience)

ZEN PT Elaborated
1. Ease of use (experience)
- easy to use for a variety of people, of varying degrees of experience?
- are schedule and route information easy to understand?
- easy to get on/off, get a ticket?
- easy to get from A to B, with confidence?
- an easy system doesn't require too much explanation, functions should be intuitive

2. Effectiveness (utility)
- do routes operate on time on predictable schedules?
- do visual, tactile, or auditory signals tell the user where and when they will arrive?
- do users know where they are in the system?
- do users know what to do in the system to accomplish their desired goals?

3. Comfort (experience)
- do passengers feels safe, secure, relaxed in the system?
- does anything unpleasant happen during the journey (ie. craziess)?
- do people of a variety body shapes feel comfortable in the seats? (ie. tall/short)
- is boarding or exiting a chore, or easy?

4. Aesthetics (experience)
- does the look (interior and exterior) of the bus appeal to the passenger?
- visually and tactilely appealing?
- clean inside and out?
- internal temperature comfortable?
- do fabrics and handholds feel comfortable?
- anything unpleasant? loud sounds, bright lights, unpleasant smells?

Some would argue that points 3 and 4 are not critical in the design of a bus, but I feel that it's almost as important as 1 and 2. If the bus is a dirty, unsafe, smelly, and disgusting, ridership attendance and satisfaction will probably be relatively low no matter how good the utility is.

Each of these 4 points can be thought of as 4 legs of a chair. Sure, it's still a chair with 1, 2, or 3 legs, but it's most stable (and most ZEN) when it has all 4 legs. Each of these legs affects how passengers perceive the system/bus and affect their decisions about what mode of transport to use. It can also influence everything from public tax funding to how frequent people vandalize the system.

ZEN PT is a chair with 4 legs.