Irvine Shuttle cuts midday service, becomes redundant version of OCTA's StationLink routes
Submitted by Steven on 7 June, 2009 - 9:39pm
The Irvine Shuttle ("the i") has shrunken considerably. The 3-route bus system serves the westernmost part of Irvine (the "Irvine Business Complex"), but as of last Monday, city staff cut one of the routes and eliminated all midday service. They've also started charging for non-Metrolink riders. According to irvineshuttle.net, the "City of Irvine [will now focus] on its busy morning, late afternoon and evening commuter routes to the Tustin Metrolink Station."
It seems like the Irvine Shuttle now serves as a redundant duplicate of OCTA's StationLink service. The current Irvine Shuttle service combined with OCTA's StationLink Route 472 and 473, essentially mimics the same stops as OCTA's previous Routes 470 and 471 before they got "streamlined" in 2008. For comparison purposes, I've highlighted those routes in light blue on the map here.
The cuts came a few days after an Orange County Register article featured local resident Eric Hall's iShuttle Twitter feed and Youtube video about the empty buses. The article interestingly states:
While city leaders may be scaling back expectations for the iShuttle, they showed no signs of backing off dreams of a city-wide transit system.
Irvine Co. officials on Tuesday presented the council with the results of a 30-year-transit study the developer was required to fund in return for city approval of the final Irvine village.
The draft plan calls for a rubber tire transit system linking transit centers, job rich areas and residential neighborhoods.
The proposed transit plan calls for the continuation of the iShuttle, the addition of routes from the Irvine Train Station linking up to the Irvine Spectrum and the Great Park, and four new routes from the Tustin Train Station to residential neighborhoods. Officials estimated the programs eventual price-tag at $254 million.
This is the learning process we are doing, and it takes a little investment in time and money," Mayor Sukhee Kang said. "We are not looking for a year or two; we are looking at 30 years."
The city has already laid the financial groundwork for a city-wide transit system, with the council in January backing a $120 million deal with the Orange County Transportation Authority., freeing up money previously tied to the failed Centerline project, which would have linked Santa Ana, Irvine and Costa Mesa, and a now sidelined rail and bus system between the Irvine train station, the Spectrum and the Great Park.
I saw an earlier copy of their vision in the Irvine Transit Vision slides. While I'm pleasantly surprised that their city is looking forward to a transit-oriented future (with the rising gas prices and the environmental pollution from automobiles), their city still isn't built for non-automobile users (i.e. Complete Streets). It's unnerving to bicycle, wait for a bus, or walk along 8-lane 50-mph local roads. Although there are lots of high-rise housing developments being built on the western and eastern fringes of Irvine, there's still too much space between complexes. The lack of mixed-use development precludes easy walking to destinations like grocery stores. It's clear the car still remains king.
As a humorous aside, isn't it funny that the two major destinations of the Irvine Shuttle — a train station and an airport — serve to get people *out* of Irvine? No offense, Irvine residents.
Comments
The Fight not worth Fighting
I followed Centerline until it's death.
I followed Guideway Demo until it's death.
I urged Kang to keep transit in Irvine's plan/
Clearly Transit (outside of cars) will never be in Irvine's vision or supported by voters and or leaders.
I realize now as I move to Singapore, my dreams just will not materialize in Irvine.
Had Irvine been built with a little more vision and planners required lightrail or clustered mixed-use development, maybe we would have a more connected and vibrant Irvine. Irvine came 25 years too late and 25 years too early.
Alas, the book has been written.
On the specific topic of the
On the specific topic of the mid-day circulator shuttles, I admit it makes sense to cut them. I work near the airport and every time I see the shuttles at lunch, they are completely empty. I can only recall seeing one person waiting at a shuttle stop in the last six months.
For whatever reason, nobody wants to take the bus on their lunch break (really, this is pretty unusual for an urban center- usually workers will walk to lunch). Redevelopment of the business district needs to continue so that it becomes truly urban and pedestrian-friendly, which will make it transit friendly.
why not privatize public transpo?
Why can't the city of Irvine allow private entities to provide public transportation? Having minibuses (instead of big buses) with fixed routes is one way to have the bus come more frequently, not to mention that this means less cost to the government. Transfers will also become easier if the buses come more frequently.