By Sean Brodfuehrer
The
NFTA has been going through a process of organizational planning. The purpose
of which is to guide the forward motion of the organization. It will evaluate
the current system and define what the priorities should be in the future, as
well as come up with some recommendation for changes to the system. It is their Transit Service
Restructuring and Fare Study.
I
was reading through the preliminary findings
presentation that the NFTA has posted on their website and thought
this was something that would be of interest to a larger audience. A while back
they were handing out surveys to riders on buses and rail. An aggregate version
of that information can be found within this survey.
Some
of the highlights are:
- · Over 70% of bus and
rail riders use the system at least 5 days per week. - · 19% of riders have an
income above $45,000 compared to 10% of bus riders. - · 60% of all system
users have a household income less than $25,000. - · A higher percentage of
youth and young adults use rail compared to bus. - · 51% of bus and 46% of
rail riders use the system for work. - · Only 10% of bus riders
transfer, while 30% transfer from rail to Metro Buses. - · 56% of bus and 40% of
rail users have no vehicle alternative.
You
can take what you will from the stats, but some of the findings should certainly
have an impact on how the NFTA does business. The fact that only 10% of the bus
riders transfer is a tell sign in my opinion that people will make sure that
they are on the best route from the beginning and most likely using the rail to
get there instead of transferring from bus to bus. The reason for this is not
defined here but from my experience I would say that information about bus to
bus transfer is difficult at best to ascertain along many routes. That is
because of the way the NFTA chooses to give information, one is left with
guessing for both when your bus and the next bus will arrive at the
intersection. They should at least rethink
their maps and schedules.
There
is some interesting ridership information available in the report, the exact
numbers from which I do have available for someone interested in the nitty gritty
information. The graphs are particularly interesting. Notice how completely off
the scale ridership is for the train compared to even the most used bus line,
over three times.
What
are your perspectives on which lines get used and not used? Did you think that
the 3 Grant was the most used bus line; with the 20 Elmwood, 12 Utica and 23
Hertel-Fillmore following up as the next three most used? What should the rest
of the routes do in order to match or grow their ridership? Anything? Nothing; you like the leg room?
Something
else I find extremely interesting is the peak automobile trips and the total
boardings by stop. To me these two diagrams show just how futile the zone
system has become for the NFTA and how it probably adds confusion and cost
geographic areas which are much more intertwined then when this system was
conceptualized.
Take
a look, what do we think will come of this planning exercise? Also everyone who
has an interest in this subject should take a couple minutes and fill out their survey.