Get OCTA Back on Right Route

What seemed evident about bus usage for the last several months has been officially confirmed. The growth of Orange County’s bus line, fastest in the nation in 1997, has come to a screeching halt.

Growth began slipping in 1998, and the latest Orange County Transportation Authority official figure sets the growth in bus boardings over a 12-month period up to last March at just 0.3%. But even that figure might be inflated because measuring growth is far from an exact science.

The totals are arrived at by counting boardings, which do not accurately reflect the number of people riding buses on any given day, and include people using transfers. If those transfer riders, who are not actually new fare-paying passengers, are deducted from the minuscule reported gain, there might be an actual ridership loss. In any case, the low totals represent a significant drop in the ridership and revenue transportation officials projected for the current budget year.

That has caused a needed search for reasons for the decline and ways to fill more bus seats. Changes in the fare structure and bus routes are two of the major causes officials have cited for riders abandoning the system. There was considerable criticism from riders last September when bus officials revamped routes that formerly took people to population and transit centers and transfer points in favor of a straight-line grid-like system.

For many riders, obviously too many, it meant longer trips with frequent transfers. Complaints persist. And ridership still lags in a still-growing county of 2.8 million residents.

In the quest for a more user-friendly operation, OCTA officials have launched a full review of the system to develop hard data that will lead to a growth action plan. In developing that plan they should be sure to listen and react to rider complaints and suggestions, and be sure improvements include more frequent and faster service along with realigned routes that go where people want to go without the need for multiple transfers.

What puts Orange County’s declining ridership in even more critical perspective is the contrasting growth in public transit use throughout the state. Statistics show that 25 of California’s 29 largest transit systems had ridership gains, some of them dramatic, double-digit increases.

In neighboring Los Angeles County last year several municipal bus lines recorded healthy increases in ridership. Montebello was up more than 9%, Torrance more than 8% and Long Beach was up nearly 6%.

Earlier this year, when the lack of public support forced OCTA officials to back off plans for the proposed $2.3-billion CenterLine rail project they sent marketing and community relations specialists to cities like Denver and Dallas to see how officials there won resident support for similar light-rail lines.

Some of the bus problem arises from not listening to people who stated the obvious about misguided decisions. Maybe seeing what others are doing right will help. For that, perhaps a junket to Montebello or Long Beach could return Orange County to ridership growth.