Short Range Transit Plan 2008-2013 - Omnitrans

IBI GROUP
SHORT RANGE TRANSIT PLAN REPORT
OMNITRANS COMPREHENSIVE OPERATIONAL ASSESSMENT
& SHORT RANGE TRANSIT PLAN
West Valleys. The market and line segment analysis and the stakeholder surveys have identified the
strengths and weaknesses in the transit system and the needs that should be met.
Market Penetration – Ridership on the Omnitrans routes consists of 25% students attending the
universities, colleges and high schools in the service area, 64% adults using the routes for work purposes
(44%) and for shopping, social, and other purposes (20%), and 11% seniors using the routes primarily for
shopping, social, medical and other purposes. Students, seniors, and adults with limited car access are
transit’s main markets.
• 4,600 students (12-24 years of age) use the transit system on school days, which
is about 4% of the students enrolled in the high schools, colleges and universities
in the service area. This represents 14,000 unlinked weekday passenger trips or
25% of the daily ridership. When compared to the peer systems with colleges
and universities, student ridership could be higher, suggesting that this market
could be better served by the transit system, particularly the college market.
• 16,000 adults (25 to 65 years of age) use the transit system on weekdays, which
is about 5% of the adult population with limited access to an automobile and
comparable to most other transit properties. This represents 39,500 unlinked
weekday passenger trips or 64% of the daily ridership. Considering that 85% of
the ridership is captive to transit, it is clear that Omnitrans needs to improve its
services to attract more choice riders, particularly workers commuting to
destinations outside the County.
• 32% of all work trips are made to destinations outside the County, primarily to
Los Angeles County (17%), Riverside County (8%), and Orange County (4%).
This represents about 400,000 daily trips as compared to an estimated 3,000
daily passenger trips carried on the transit system to/from the Transcenters
connecting with Metrolink and Foothill Transit services, and to/from Riverside on
Route 90. This is a small market share with significant potential for improvement.
• 1,400 seniors use the fixed routes on weekdays, which is 6% of Omnitrans fixed
route ridership and consistent with the market share experienced by most of
Omnitrans’ peer systems with fixed route and dial-a-ride services.
Market Demands – It is clear that transit needs to keep pace with the changing and growing demands of
the student and adult markets in order to grow the ridership base cost-effectively. Currently, there are
several deficiencies that are creating unmet demands in the transit markets. Omnitrans will not be able to
meet the long-term growth and development goals of the County without addressing the unmet needs of
these markets. The main needs are related to deficiencies in the structures, frequencies and spans of the
routes. Firstly, 60-minute service and 12-hour spans are not appropriate for an urban transit system
serving students and adult commuters; the Route 7, 8, 9, 10, 28, 29, 60, 67, 70, 71 and 75 service areas
are affected by this serious deficiency. Secondly, the structure of several routes need to be changed and
extended to better serve the student and adult markets; Routes 8, 9, 14, 15, 29, 60, 62, 66, 68, 70, and
71 are in this category. In total, there is an estimated unmet demand of 12,000 daily passenger trips.
Service Performance – In order to be cost-effective, transit needs to provide services that can operate
on-time and can carry at least 20 passengers per hour Monday to Saturday and 10 passengers per hour
on Sundays and holidays. Routes 8, 11, 28, 31, 60, 67, 68, 70, 75 and 90 do not meet these standards
and need to be restructured or dropped to reduce revenue hours and costs. In total, the services on
these routes need to be reduced by an estimated 200 daily revenue hours, which will affect some 1,500
daily passenger trips.
July 11, 2007 183