TRANSIT APPENDIX Southern California Association of Governments ADOPTED APRIL 2012 TRANSIT Overview and Description 1 Transit Modes in the SCAG Region 1 The State of the System 2 Availability Analysis 4 The Great Recession 7 Transit and Sustainable Communities 19 Needs Assessment and Transit Challenges 20 Economics and Funding 20 Coordinated Planning 21 Constrained Plan 22 Baseline Transit Investments and Policies 22 Planned Investments 23 Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Reduction 31 Strategies and Recommendations 32 Operational Strategies 32 Accessibility Strategies 32 Strategic Plan: Looking Ahead – Beyond the Horizon 33 Transit 1 Overview and Description Transit, City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), Riverside Transit Agency (RTA), Omnitrans, and Long Beach Transit (LBT) rank among the 100 largest The transit system in our six-county region is comprised of an extensive network of propertiesTransit nationally. Modes in the SCAG Region services provided by dozens of operators. The network includes fixed-route local bus, community circulators, express bus, bus rapid transit (BRT), demand response, commuter Our regionTransit is planningservice in and the constructing SCAG region an is ambitiouscomposed level of five of modestransit capitalof service: projects, rail, heavy rail, and light rail. The operators include well established agencies in mature including newFixed rail Routelines and Bus bus Service priority, referred facilities to such as Motor as bus Bus lanes in the and National bus signal priority service areas as well as smaller municipal operators whose services are developing (BSP). In NovemberTransit Database 2008, Los and Angeles defined County as “a voterstransit approved mode comprised a third county of rubber sales tax smartly in their respective parts of the region. Ridership in our region continues to grow, increase, Measuretired vehicles R, funding operating new capital on fixed projects routes andand providingschedules additional over roadways.” operating funds for county transit providers. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation and significant progress is being made in making transit more available and attractive by Demand Response, defined as “a transit mode comprised of pas- Authority (Metro) already administers Proposition A and C funds (a half cent each), and virtue of a burgeoning rail network, transit oriented development (TOD) and other service senger cars, vans, or small buses operating in response to calls from will use 35 percent of the revenues from Measure R to develop a series of major transit improvements. However, this progress has been slowed by recent cutbacks in funding passengers or their agents to the transit operator, who then dispatches capital projects for bus improvements and to expand the rail network. Imperial, Orange, and decreases in revenue. a vehicle to pick up the passengers and transport them to their Riverside and San Bernardino counties also have local sales tax programs in place, deliv- destinations.” As of FY2009, our region’s transit system represents approximately 8,700 miles of bus ering similar mixes of operational and capital project improvements. routes, 70 miles of heavy and light rail, and 512 miles of commuter rail service. Almost Light Rail, defined as “a transit mode that typically is an electric 5 percent of commuters in the SCAG region used transit to reach their place of employ- Along with therailway recent with and a lightfuture volume improvements traffic capacity to our region’scompared transit to heavy system rail are(HR). land use ment as of 2009. However, this is significantly below the percentage of commuters using developmentsIt is around characterized transit centers by passenger and stations rail cars along operating transit oncorridors fixed rails that in encourage transit in other large metropolitan areas such as Chicago or the Bay Area. As of FY2009, transit usage.shared Many or residential exclusive andright-of-way commercial (ROW) developments and vehicle have power been drawn built from or are in transit agencies in the SCAG Region reported 747.3 million boardings. This represents a the pipeline analongside overhead transit electric facilities line via that a trolley offer residentsor a pantograph.” and employees an opportunity to make a trip by transit, bicycling, or walking, instead of an auto trip. net growth of nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2010; however, there has been only a Heavy Rail, defined as “a transit mode that is an electric railway with 4 percent growth in per capita trips, meaning that most of the growth in boardings could These positivethe developmentscapacity for a haveheavy been volume significantly of traffic. impacted It is characterized however byby recentsepa- revenue be explained by population growth. declines andrate cutbacks ROWs fromin funding. which Theall other Great vehicular Recession and and foot its traffic anemic are recovery excluded have While Southern California has a national reputation for auto-centricity, our region has led to seriousand fiscal high challenges speed and forrapid our acceleration transit operators. passenger Since rail FY2008, cars operating transit provid - an extensive transit network. According to APTA’s Public Transportation Fact Book, the ers within thesingly SCAG or regionin multi-car have seentrains a ondecrease fixed rails.” in State Transit Account (STA) funds of Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Urbanized Statistical Area (UZA) ranked number two approximately Commuter $759 million. Rail (CR)Local, definedTransportation as “a transit Fund mode(LTF) allocationsthat is an electric in FY 2010 were nationally in several important measures. Only the New York-Newark UZA reported more 21 percent loweror diesel than propelled FY 2007. railway By February for urban of 2011, passenger half of train the agenciesservice consist that provide- Vehicles Operated Maximum Service, Vehicles Available for Maximum Service, Vehicle service betweening of local local cities short in distance our region travel had operating cut service between by between a central 2 percent city and and 20 Revenue Miles, Vehicle Revenue Hours, and Unlinked Passenger Trips. Los Angeles-Long percent. Of adjacentthose, four suburbs. agencies Service had cut must service be operated by more on than a regular 10 percent. basis Duringby or this Beach-Santa Ana ranked third in Passenger Miles Travelled, behind the New York-Newark same period,under 14 out contract of 25 ofwith these a transit operators operator had seenfor the their purpose boardings of transport fall between- 2 per- and Chicago UZAs. LA Metro is the fifth largest operator nationally, when ranked in terms cent and 27 percent.ing passengers Of those, within four urbanized agencies areashad boardings (UZAs), or fall between by more urbanized than 15 percent. of service hours. Eight other properties, The City of Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus, Orange To offset thisareas large and revenue outlying decline, areas.” almost Discussion all operators of this havemode raised is included fares. in While the this has County Transportation Authority (OCTA), Access Services Incorporated (ASI), Foothill increased farePassenger revenues Rail in theAppendix. region, it does not provide an incentive for increased pas- senger boardings. 2 Transit Coupled with the revenue setbacks, costs for transit providers are heading in the opposite TABLE 1 Transit Properties Included in 2012–2035 RTP/SCS direction by rising faster than inflation. Each mode has shown cost per passenger mile Transit Performance Analysis traveled (PMT) increase over the past decade: bus service by 24 percent, Metro Rail by 41 percent, and Metrolink by 48 percent. Transit providers’ fare revenue, or “farebox Antelope Valley Transit Authority Beach Cities Transit recovery,” has decreased from 32 percent of the cost of providing service to just 27 Culver CityBus Foothill Transit percent since 2000. Gardena Municipal Bus Lines Gold Coast Transit These cost and revenue trends weaken the long term stability of transit services in the Imperial Valley Transit Long Beach Transit SCAG Region. Unless transit operators in our region find ways to improve the fare revenue Los Angeles Department of Los Angeles County Metropolitan to cost ratio, transit services will require much greater subsidies or services will continue Transportation Transportation Authority (Metro) to be cut. This conflict will grow as new operational funds will need to be applied towards Southern California Regional Rail Montebello Bus Lines new capital projects currently in development once they are ready for revenue service. Authority (Metrolink) Morongo Basin Transit Authority Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority The State of the System (MARTA) A detailed analysis was completed to gauge the state of SCAG’s transit system. The Norwalk Transit District Omnitrans analysis studied the 25 inter-jurisdictional operators in our region over the last ten years. Orange County Transportation Authority Riverside Transit Agency The goals of the analysis were to: Santa Clarita Transit City of Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Assess the region’s ability to attract and retain new transit riders Simi Valley Transit SunLine Transit Agency Assess the region’s utilization of transit resources Torrance Transit Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority Show transit availability and connectivity to smart growth/TOD Victor Valley Transit Authority Show the effects of the recession Transit 3 The analysis shows that transit usage continues