Fiscal Year (FY) 2011–12 TRANSIT SYSTEM PERFORMANCE REPORT Understanding the Region’s Investments in Public Transportation Transit/Rail Department PHOTO CREDITS SCAG would like to thank the ollowing transit agencies: • City o Santa Monica, Big Blue Bus • City o Commerce Municipal Bus Lines • Foothill Transit • Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) • Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) • Omnitrans • Victor Valley Transit Authority CONTENTS SECTION 01 Public Transportation in the SCAG Region ........ 1 SECTION 02 Evaluating Transit System Performance ......... 13 SECTION 03 Operator Profiles ....................................... 31 Imperial County .................................... 32 Los Angeles County .............................. 34 Orange County ..................................... 76 Riverside County .................................. 82 San Bernardino County .......................... 93 Ventura County .................................... 99 APPENDIX A Transit Governance in the SCAG Region ......... A1 APPENDIX B System Performance Measures ................... B1 APPENDIX C Reporting Exceptions ................................. C1 SECTION 01 Public Transportation in the SCAG Region Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus (BBB) City o Commerce Municipal Bus Lines (CBL) FY 2011-12 TRANSIT SYSTEM PERFORMANCE REPORT INTRODUCTION The Southern Cali ornia Association o Governments (SCAG) is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) representing six counties in Southern Cali ornia: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura. SCAG is responsible under state and ederal law or preparing long-range transportation plans and transportation improvement programs through a per ormance- driven, outcome-based approach, and in cooperation with the public and stakeholders, including the State o Cali ornia and public transportation operators. These plans and programs must provide or the development and integrated management and operation o transportation systems and acilities that will unction as an intermodal transportation system or the ederally designated metropolitan planning area and as an integral part o an intermodal transportation system or the state and the nation. Public transportation, or transit, is a mobility strategy that allows travelers modal choice to reach their destinations, and provides mobility or residents without access to vehicles. Transit also represents a signi icant investment within the region’s overall transportation system, composing roughly hal (in com- bination with passenger rail) o all investments in the 2012-2035 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustain- able Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS). SCAG REGION NEVADA CALIFORNIA 191 cities SAN BERNARDINO VENTURA 6 counties LOS ANGELES 38,000 square miles RIVERSIDE ORANGE ARIZONA 19 million people PACIFIC OCEAN IMPERIAL MEXICO 1 SECTION 01 Public Transportation in the SCAG Region operations within the context o the production THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ACT OF 2012 DEFINES o the 2016 RTP/SCS PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AS: X Providing a benchmarking resource which Transportation by a conveyance that provides providers o public transportation can use to regular and continuing general or special trans- compare their system’s perormance to that o portation to the public, but does not include comparable agencies school bus, charter, or intercity bus transpor- X Addressing new Metropolitan Planning provisions tation or intercity passenger rail transportation contained in Moving Ahead or Progress in the provided by the entity described in chapter 243 21st Century (MAP-21), relating to the production (or a successor to such entity).i o public transportation System Perormance Reports in Regional Transportation Plans The purpose o this report is to provide an incremen- This report is organized into three sections: tal step towards producing a transit System Peror- SECTION 01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN mance Report or the 2016 RTP/SCS, and to continue THE SCAG REGION discusses the types o tran- incorporating an annual review o system peror- sit provided in the region, how service provision is mance geared towards planning or operations and governed, transit’s role in providing mobility, and the maintenance into SCAG’s transit modal planning prac- external beneits transit provides. tices. There are our key actors this report addresses SECTION 02 REGIONAL PERFORMANCE as an incremental step towards the 2016 RTP/SCS: analyzes transit perormance at a regional level, X Providing a ramework or understanding the addressing the system’s productivity, the inancial region’s large and complex public transporta- resources dedicated to the region’s transit system, tion system, and analyzing its perormance at the geographic distribution o service provision and that same level. This includes contextualizing consumption or Fiscal Year 2011-2012 (FY 2011-12)11. public transportation’s role in providing mobility SECTION 03 OPERATOR PROFILES depicts the within the region, addressing governance issues, individual perormance o each o the transit proper- and addressing the geographic distribution o ties in the region that report data within the National service provision and consumption, in addition Transit Database’s urban operator’s ormat. to addressing the growing role o rail transit and demand response services in the region Finally, the Appendices provide urther detail regard- ing transit governance in the SCAG region and the X Providing a resource that helps policy makers development o the system perormance measures understand the nature and extent o the region’s used in this report. investments in public transportation, the kinds o returns those investments are delivering, and adding to the discussion regarding planning or 1 For purposes of this report, a fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends June 30 of the following calendar year. 2 Southern California Association of Governments FY 2011-12 TRANSIT SYSTEM PERFORMANCE REPORT annual reports (see Table 4). These measures were reviewed by the High Speed Rail and Transit Subcom- mittee o SCAG’s Transportation Committee, and by the Regional Transit Technical Advisory Committee. Deining Public Transportation The Federal Transit Act o 2012 deines public trans- portation as: “Transportation by a conveyance that provides regular and continuing general or special transpor- tation to the public, but does not include school bus, charter, or intercity bus transportation or intercity passenger rail transportation provided by The 2012-2035 RTP/SCS the entity described in chapter 243 (or a successor On April 4, 2012 SCAG’s Regional Council adopted the to such entity)i.” 2012-2035 RTP/SCS, the culmination o a multi-year planning eort involving stakeholders rom across As amended by MAP-21, 49 US Code Section 5302, the region. This plan laid orth the region’s vision urther deines public transportation as: or mobility investments over a twenty- three year “(14) PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.—The term ‘public time span, and was the irst to integrate a “Sustain- transportation’— able Communities Strategy” identiying “high quality (A) means regular, continuing shared-ride surace transit corridors” or inill development, and advanc- transportation services that are open to the gen- ing strategies or reducing regional greenhouse gas eral public or open to a segment o the general emissions. public deined by age, disability, or low income; and As part o the analytical work comprising the produc- (B) does not include— tion o the transit appendix to the 2012-2035 RTP/ SCS, base year perormance data were analyzed or (i) intercity passenger rail transportation provided 25 agencies providing inter-jurisdictional transit ser- by the entity described in chapter 243 (or a succes- vice in the SCAG Region. sor to such entity); The 2010-11 System Perormance Report (ii) intercity bus service; The 2010-11 Transit System Perormance Report was (iii) charter bus service; (iv) school bus service; (v) SCAG’s irst eort at producing an annual ormat or sightseeing service; measuring system perormance. This eort included a (vi) courtesy shuttle service or patrons o one or review o the literature on transit perormance mea- more speciic establishments; or sures (see Appendix B) which led to the selection o a discrete set o measures proposed to be used or the (vii) intra-terminal or intra-acility shuttle services.” 3 SECTION 01 Public Transportation in the SCAG Region It is important to note that per the ederal deinition o transit, and or the sake o this report, services such FIGURE 1 Public Transit Modes in the SCAG Region as intercity passenger transportation, high speed rail, FIXED ROUTE BUS SERVICE university or workplace shuttles, school buses, or tour- ism based services do not qualiy as public transporta- De ined as “a transit mode comprised o rubber tired vehicles operating on tion and will not be considered here. Further, since the ixed routes and schedules over road- perormance o the Southern Caliornia Regional Rail ways” (re erred to as Motor Bus in the National Transit Database). Authority’s Metrolink service was analyzed in SCAG’s 2013 Rail System Per ormance Report, its individual perormance will not be analyzed here in any depth. DEMAND RESPONSE The transit system in the six-county SCAG Region is De ined as “a transit mode comprised comprised o an extensive network o services pro- o passenger cars, vans, or small buses operating in response to calls vided by dozens o operators. The network includes rom passengers or their agents ixed-route