Passenger Survey - Tell Us What You Think
Metro recently launched an online survey to gather input from bus and train riders about Metro service. The survey aims to gather information on how riders are currently using the system and where and how Metro can better meet their needs.
Metro operates the country’s second largest bus system and a growing rail network. The survey is a chance to help the agency with the continuous improvement of its operations and to respond to customer concerns and recommendations. Need another reason to take the survey? One winner will be selected from each drawing period to receive a check in the amount of $250. The survey runs through March 31st.
Share your thoughts and help Metro improve its service by taking the online survey today.
Categories: Surveys
Bus 460 express Los Angeles / Disneyland service need to be improved alot and drivers should maintain this units in order to prevent bus from breaking down as often as they do and also have more better driver who are responsible and on time.
Today’s trip was unusual in the sense that normally I would complete a trip from Santa Monica to the CalStateLA busway station in a little bit more than an hour. Today, I left on the Santa Monica Rapid bus #10 at 1:15 pm (on Saturday) and encounters some traffic and an accident on the Santa Monica Freeway ending at 1:56 pm about a short block away from the Metro 487 at Wilshire and Flower. The Metro 487 picked me up at about 2:08 pm at Wilshire near Flower and took my IAT transfer from the Santa Monica busline. I said that I was going to CalStateLA (which normally would take about 12 minutes or less to get to Union Station and another 6 minutes to arrive at CalStateLA busway station.) The busway was closed Eastbound at Alameda and Arcadia Street so the bus traveled North to Cesar Chavez Ave. where it turned right to Mission and right again to enter the #101 Freeway Eastbound. I asked the driver is the bus was going to stop at CalStateLA and she answer no, it was not stopping until Del Mar Avenue. She offered me a municipal transfer to take the next Metro 487 Westbound back to CalstateLA. The busway was open Westbound at the time. After getting off the bus at Del Mar Avenue and Marshall Street, I crossed over the street and went to the nearest bus stop. I called 511 and was told that the next 487 bus South and Westbound would be at 3:41 pm. My printed schedule and the one that I checked later on Metro.Net said 3:13 pm so I presumed that the 511 operator had more current information given the construction and traffic on the freeway and busway. The bus did arrive at 3:50 pm and accepted my municipal transfer for the fare back to CalStateLA. The driver was very nice about that. I did arrive at the CalStateLA busway station about six minutes later.
Presumably, I could have walked (and gotten good exercise) the five or six miles from Union Station to CalStateLA in less time than taking the two Metro 487 buses to get there. Assuming that the closing of the busway was an unanticipated emergency situation or even a planned scheduled diversion in the conversion of the busway to a fast lane for the freeway, It seems to me that some communication to the driver in advance (if possible) would have allowed me to be informed so as to change to a #71 or #70 bus and to have expedited my trip so that I could get some work done rather than waiting for an unnecessary extra trip.
It does not seem to be the fault of the bus driver(s) if they are not informed about unforeseen closures of their routes (although I really do not know if the first 487 driver knew about the busway closure in advance or just found out about it when she reached the entry to the busway at Union Station. She might have forgotten that my destination was at CalStateLA but she definitely could have said something before getting on the freeway without any plan to access normal stops at the Country/USC Hospital and CalStateLA). Given the amount of barricades set up on the Westbound busway entry, it would be proper to assume that someone knew what was going on. Even a detour sign on the bus would have given some warning. The operator at the 511 service seemed away that the Metro 487 buses were not running on their usual schedule from her forecast of the next bus to reach the stop that I was at.
A very inexpensive and very helpful strategy would be to improve the information distribution system to avoid these snafus. During “bike day” in downtown LA last year, barricades and other routing devices were used for safety purposes while bus riders were not informed that the buses that they were waiting for were detoured several blocks away. After waiting an hour and a half for a bus scheduled every fifteen minutes on Olive at 5th Street, I walked South three blocks on Olive to where I found the buses turning to detour to the East. When I called for information later, I was told that signs were supposed to be posted about the change in routes but that never happened. Since this seems to be a systematic problem that might be easily corrected, someone should take the responsibility to see that such glitches are not repeated. Similar situations seem to recur sporadically and unnecessarily. High tech solutions are fine but some low tech following-through would immensely improve the reliability of the system and the trust of the ridership.
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Why do all the transportation improvements cater to the west san fernando valley to serve the affluent resident who least rely on them. The east san fernando valley again has been severely underserved and ignored. The working people in those neighborhoods need a reliable, affordable method to commute downtown. The Metrolink and Amtrak systems are overpriced to keep riders who could benefit from their service. They cater to affluent riders from ventura and santa clarita.
End this economic discrimination!
This is a poor survey at best.
A better survey would’ve been to not restrict this to only Metro riders, but to car drivers as well to see how the real transit patterns are for Angelinos.
Anonymous survey of weekly transit habits of Angelinos:
1. Nearest major cross street to your home and nearest major cross street to your place of work; or just drag and drop a pinpoint on Google Maps
2. Other to/from places that you go to every week at what times (home to Costco? Work to favorite lunch place? Home to favorite exercise area?)
This ensures several things: anonymosity (very important; no one wants big gov’t knowing the exact location of where you live and work!) the commuting and transit patterns of Angelinos who commute with a car, a data figure of where people go throughout the week, and a baseline idea on how to develop mass transit more efficiently.
The survey is really screwy. It made driving look like a great option because it assumed only a $2.00 cost for parking (relative to the $4.60 fare it assumed for transit) and kept adding a 28 minute transfer time onto my trip for no good reason. It doesn’t seem to be able to handle Metrolink, or even Metro Rail, very well.
Metro should keep the public inform on the status of all projects.
Yes, there should have been space for additional comments. The rapid buses should be timed so that one is there when the subway trains arrive. Many times, I just miss one, and have to wait several minutes before another one comes along. That in turn causes me to miss the next connection. Some of the drivers are very good at watching to see if more people are emerging from the subway and are trying to make the bus, others just take off, even if the buses are not crowded. It’s also difficult that the local/rapids are on different sides of the street. The timing of the connections could be better. It’s hit or miss.
The survey had no option for additional user comments. Pls consider adding a SMS service for passengers similar to San Diego Transit system whereby bus stop information can be obtained via texting. For bus stops with construction changes, this will help users know when no further service is offerred due to construction changes, IE, El Monte Station.
Wow, very thorough survey. Hopefully people will have the patience to sit through it. If they do, and you receive a fair amount of responses, you’ll have some very insightful data to work from.