Bravo! is the Key
Submitted by Spokker on 28 May, 2009 - 10:48pm
Bravo!, the stupid name, in my opinion anyway, for Orange County's proposed "not-quite-BRT" rapid bus network, is the key to revolutionizing mass transit in Orange County. While all the drama surrounding budget cuts is going on it's easy to forget about Bravo!, which I believe was scheduled to start in 2008 but has been steadily been pushed back. It's the mass transit equivalent of vaporware.
Bravo! would help the transit dependent. Many people already take one bus on a relatively less popular line and transfer to a bus on route with much more frequent service and ridership. I do it to get to Cal State Fullerton. I take the 54 and transfer to the 57. It would be such an incredible improvement to take the 54 to the rapid bus version of the 57. It wouldn't just be me who benefits, but also the scads of people who I see get off at major cross streets to transfer to other lines.
Bravo! would be more likely to attract people from their cars than regular bus service. I'm not saying Bravo! is going to make a huge dent in automobile use in Orange County, but it's going to do a hell of a lot better than our current network. The bus isn't such a drag when it makes less stops. I think it'll attract those riders currently sitting on the fence about mass transit.
Our goal today should not be about just saving bus service in Orange County, but making it better. The implementation of Bravo! should be striven for, because once it's in place, I think more people in Orange County will feel more proud of their mass transit network and feel like they have a higher stake in it. And once Bravo! is in place, we can start talking about light rail again. Maybe.
With that in mind, keep doing whatever you can to urge your government officials to find a dedicated funding source for mass transit. Until that's in place, mass transit will forever be subservient to the ebbs and flows of tax revenues and state budgets.
Comments
I hope they don't water this down
My worry is that the Board will water this thing down (based on the comments they made at the Rapid Bus hearing). And, the fact that OCTA didn't apply for any of President Obama's federal stimulus funds that could've been used for their large Bravo's bus shelters, real-time information panels, ticket machines, etc. was a sadly missed opportunity.
Bravo, is as you say
Bravo, is as you say vaporware, I am not sure why they are still pushing it.
Without dedicated BUS ONLY lanes and signalization. and without GPS linked monitors at each stand (and forget internet linked updated status) this is nothing other than a New Rider bus wearing the Ugly Dress.
I am all for BRT, but this will slowly be dismantled back into a regular bus line after 6 months of fan fare.
With in 5 years even the Ugly Dress will be removed for the regular OCTA livery.
The problem is that the OCTA
The problem is that the OCTA called it BRT in the first place. BRT, as you describe, ideally involves some kind of bus only lane. The Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley is the closest example I can think of.
The current plan is still good and is all about developing routes that eliminate 75% of stops to achieve stops roughly 1 mile apart. This is how the red Rapid Buses in Los Angeles work and it has done wonders for riders in that area. You can still add signalization on a rapid bus route. Again, they do it in LA. The bells and whistles like next bus info is nice, but is not integral. The key is stops spaced 1 mile apart.
I agree with you about the livery. But hey, it's a small price to pay for rapid bus service.
I agree with this completely;
I agree with this completely; the traditional perception of buses are of slow, jerky, noisy, smelly machines. While the newer natural gas buses are going a long way towards getting rid of the last two, Bravo! is needed to combat the others.
Let's be real- The sad truth is that the majority of bus riders are those who are dependent on them; this is true in LA as well as OC. In contrast, riders on the Metro rail lines in LA are much more economically diverse. For whatever reason, middle and upper class people seem to like riding on trains much more than buses. Maybe it's the smoother ride or the tighter timetable, but a bus that achieves some of the performance aspects of light rail or subways has huge potential to attract these riders.
It's also in how you market it
It's also how you market the service.
For example, a majority of bus riders for the 400-series StationLink buses here are white-collar professionals (okay, at least middle-class people). StationLink is great at whisking you to your destination quickly because no one is boarding and stuffing their fare into the farebox, many travel non-stop to their destinations (e.g. 464 travels on the 5-55 carpool lanes), and there's almost zero wait time between train-bus transfers. But there's almost zero marketing for this fast service, and as a result, when I ride the 464, it's often half-empty.
If OCTA really wanted to attract middle- and upper-class people, they need to change the perceptions of Orange County by doing what Metro has done: create a modern image for themselves, rebrand their buses (shed the two-stripes-on-white-paint look), make their bus stops more welcoming (e.g. Metro's Rapid 720 shelters, Anaheim's huge, well-lit shelters), and make their brochures and websites less embarrassing.
And (I hate to say it) they should show attractive people using their service. e.g. Metro's brochure here has a whole night-life brochure dedicated to a LOCAL bus line for the Sunset Strip!
Transit agencies should pay
Transit agencies should pay white actors to ride the bus.
"The sad truth is that the majority of bus riders are those who are dependent on them"
So improve the bus service for them. Even if Bravo! had no chance of attracting drivers, I would still support it. Low-income workers are a critical component of the economy and it runs on their back-breaking, feet-hurting labor.
I'm not saying that it's a
I'm not saying that it's a waste of money if only lower income people use the buses- but shouldn't the goal of every transit agency be to attract riders of all types?