Metro’s Board of Directors previously asked staff to prepare a report on the cumulative impact of bus service changes made by the agency between 2007 and 2011. A preliminary report by staff is now available and concludes:
Based on the data collected to date, overall there was a negligible cumulative impact on boardings as a result of the service changes since June 2007, with weekday boardings increasing 1%, Saturday decreasing 1%, and Sunday remaining neutral. Minimizing impacts is largely due to listening to and incorporating public concerns during the planning process, and ensuring there are viable alternatives for existing riders.
A more complete assessment will be presented to the Board in June. I encourage you to read the report – there are a lot of good statistics in there, showing how bus service overall has grown in the county over the past 25 years — in particular service offered by cities and other agencies in L.A. County.
Here is a pdf version for download or you can read the report below.
Categories: Policy & Funding
Unfortunately the big issue that this report glosses over is the non-connectivity of the municipal operators to Metro, the different fare structures, and the breaking up of previous regional routes into smaller pieces due to “service duplication”. Long routes that used to exist, like Whittier Boulevard from LA to La Habra, have been chopped up into so many pieces that it is essentially impractical for anyone to make that trip via transit. Also, elimination of routes that “duplicate” rail cause chaos when the rail is blocked of has problems, like what happened on the Blue Line. There is no more redundancy in the bus system, so any unforeseen circumstance like a rail collision, a Presidential visit, or a bike race can foul up the entire bus system, and not just the area in question.