The Orange County Transportation Authority is in the midst of a ridership crisis. OCTA data has shown a 30 percent drop in bus ridership over the past decade. The dropoff was alarming enough for the agency that it spurred the OCTA board to approve a systemwide realignment.
“As part of its OC Bus 360 program aimed at reversing a decline in ridership, the Orange County Transportation Authority shifted 160,000 revenue vehicle hours from low- to higher-performing areas as part of bus service changes in June and October,” the Register reported.
It is a plan the Editorial Board has supported. Shifting routes from low-demand areas to high-demand areas seems a reasonable reallocation of scare transportation resources. But the results haven’t been optimal as a recent OCTA staff report showed.
“OCTA Planning Director Kurt Brotcke’s presentation to board members was bleaker than the agency had hoped, as average weekday bus boardings from November 2015 to November 2016 dropped from 141,839 to 130,729,” the Register reported.
The fact that so many continue to abandon the bus system makes more worrisome the notion of allocating Measure M money away from existing transit and the road system to questionable public transit projects like streetcars.
Buses, as it has been shown in Orange County, are by no means a moneymaker, but a system that is flexible and capable of adjusting to user preferences in a time of crisis is far preferable to a fixed-rail system. Especially when so many elsewhere fail to meet ridership projections or come anywhere close to turning a profit.
A recent example highlighted in the annual wastebook compiled by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is the Atlanta streetcar which was plagued by issues that resulted in it being finished nearly a year behind schedule and about $30 million overbudget. Since then ridership has been dismal, although the report notes that it has become popular with the city’s homeless. A Bloomberg contributor called it “a de facto rolling homeless shelter” and the union boss has complained about the safety of his members.
OCTA should fix the bus system before joining other regions in blowing money on streetcars.
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