I can fix 610 Mine Road.....on Mon 12 Sep

The more I read the posts in this forum and in the other one you have started under General and in talking to the driver and other slug this morning, sounds like most people would prefer to try the one line approach but reversed.

I see your point. But let's say there's no D.C. riders for a D.C. driver to pick up. He/She doesn't have to sit there waiting for riders to come along....they can take the 20 seconds it would take to swing around to the Pentagon line and pick up riders there.

I still believe this happens very infrequently, and the overall time saved for the vast majority of the riders/sluggers by having 2 shorter lines is much greater than for these occasional situations you describe.

Here's a thought...on those rare occasions where a D.C. driver does not have D.C. slugs to pick up, they're willing to pick up Virginia slugs (since the Virginia dropoffs are on their way to downtown). However, perhaps the opposite would not hold true, i.e. a D.C. driver would not bother to pick up downtown slugs to drop off, because they would have to backtrack back to Virginia. Is this true?

If true, perhaps it would make more sense to have the D.C. line on the south end of the median (the first line they'd come to). If no slugs are there for them, they simply pull forward and grab some Virginia slugs on the north end of the median.

Thoughts?

Wade

Wade,

I understand your reply, but respectfully disagree. "Cross-pollination" of riders and drivers occurs at a much higher rate. And it mostly affects the drivers, with the riders at a lower rate. It is, at times, acceptable to a driver to drop off at the Pentagon and then continue travel into DC than to sit for 10 minutes waiting for a rider. Under your method, this would not be an option. So a L'Enfant or 23rd St driver could be sitting across the parking lot with Pentagon riders on the other side, where if there were only one line both rider and driver could be moving toward DC.

I know that you have more than admirable intentions, but one well-formed line will have better result for the system.

I also commend you on the effort. There are two issues that are being addressed.
First, changing the direction of the rider line. This will not have any effect on the rider, but may help the driver on days when cars are backed up. For this reason, this change will not hurt and may improve the overall system and should be supported.

Second, breaking up the lines, is basically going from one Queue to two Queues. This will have a negative effect on both the rider and the driver. Currently, with one Queue, there are possible mixes of riders and drivers that encompass all possible destinations. Many times both riders and drivers modify their destinations in order to make the best use of their time (moving is better than not moving). By eliminating possible mixes of riders and drivers, you will be increasing the wait time for all within the system. This is basic Queuing and Inventory Management Theory.

Inventory (the amount of riders in line or Queue) = Throughput (Arrival rate of riders) X Cycle time (Time riders wait for a service, or wait for a car)

By moving to two Queuing lines, you are increasing the Variability between the rider mix and the driver mix. Increased Variability will increase the Cycle Time of the entire system. Thereby, increasing the overall amount of time riders waiting for a ride, or increasing the overall wait time within the system.

Recommendation: Change the direction of the Riders Line.
Do not break up the line, Retain one Queue.

okay now I'm confused! So you will have two lines on the same side of the median, one starting at one end and the other one starting at the other end of that long median and you have the ends of both lines meeting somewhere in the middle? In talking to some fellow downtown slugs yesterday and drivers, seems everyone else feels that having just one line (two lines might be too confusing) and reversing it might be the better solution because sometimes some 'downtowners' like the option of going to Rossyln or Crystal City or even the Pentagon if rides for downtown are slow. They will not have that option if the lines are split.