February 10, 2009

City Council Meeting: January 27, 2009

Agenda Item: 9-A

To: Mayor and City Council

From: Stephanie Negriff, Director of Transit Services

Subject: Public Hearing Concerning Big Blue Bus Service Changes

Recommended Action

Staff requests that the City Council conduct a public hearing and approve proposed Big Blue Bus schedule and route changes.

Executive Summary

Big Blue Bus proposes schedule and service frequency changes to Line 1, Line 3, Rapid 3, Line 4, Line 5, Line 6, Rapid 7, Line 9, Line 10, Sunset Ride and Tide Ride to better meet customer travel demand and to operate reliably through increased traffic congestion. On some of these services, the extent of proposed changes requires a public hearing. If approved, the changes would be implemented on February 15, 2009.

Background

Big Blue Bus constantly monitors passenger loads and schedule adherence on all routes. Travel patterns shift over time with some services becoming more popular to the extent of experiencing overcrowding while others become less relevant for the community’s travel needs. All services are evaluated according to a set of performance measures established by the Service Improvement Program.

Services that carry at least 60 passengers for at least two miles are identified as needing more resources to adequately meet travel demand and ensure a desirable level of passenger comfort. When fewer than 20 passengers per vehicle service hour are being carried, service guidelines recommend “trimming” the schedule by eliminating the least productive trips. Services that carry 15 or fewer passengers per vehicle service hour require significant reconfiguration or elimination.

On services that no longer operate on schedule because of increased traffic congestion, there are several strategies that can restore schedule adherence including rewriting the schedule to account for longer running times at the cost of one or two additional buses and drivers to maintain the same frequency of service, implementing bus only lanes through the most congested segments of the route, and installing signal priority technology to extend the green cycle for buses running behind schedule, while maintaining general traffic flow and reserving absolute priority for emergency vehicles. The last two strategies do not require additional buses or drivers.

Discussion

Line 1, connecting Main Street and UCLA via Santa Monica Boulevard, has daily on- time performance problems because of increased traffic congestion and overcrowding. One bus and driver will be added every afternoon to re-establish reliability of the scheduled ten-minute frequency on weekdays, 15-minute frequency on Saturday and 20-minute frequency on Sundays, adding 3,798 annual service hours. During the midday, weekday service frequency would decrease from every 10 minutes to every 11 minutes.

Line 3 and Rapid 3 experience some of the greatest overcrowding on the BBB system with as many as 38 standees recorded on some trips. On Line 3, connecting the Green line, LAX and UCLA via Lincoln Boulevard and Montana Avenue, one trip would be extended on weekdays in the evening peak period from the Green Line Station to Montana, increasing annual service hours by 150. On Rapid 3, one southbound trip at 1:35 p.m. and one northbound trip at 2:30 p.m. would be added to reduce the mid-day service gap, adding 508 annual service hours.

Line 4, operating on San Vicente and Sawtelle Boulevards, is the least productive service on weekends in the entire BBB system with only 17 passengers per vehicle service hour on Saturdays and 13 passengers per vehicle service hour on Sundays. On Line 4, weekend service will operate hourly rather than every 30-35 minutes. The last hour of service on all days is also poorly utilized with no passengers at all recorded on some trips. Under the proposal, the last trip every day would end at 8 p.m. The net change would be an annual decrease of 3,379 service hours.

On Line 5, serving Colorado Avenue and Century City, the last eastbound and westbound trips in the evening will be eliminated weekdays and weekends due to ridership of fewer than 10 passengers per service hour. One bus will be added in the afternoon to allow for slower operating times due to traffic congestion. The net result will be a decrease of 147 annual service hours.

On Line 6, the SMC Commuter, the route would be modified in the direction heading from Santa Monica towards the Palms neighborhood to avoid picking up passengers on 20^th Street at Pearl Street. Residents stated that the presence of passengers waiting at this bus stop created an intolerable hardship for them. The new route will pick up on Pico and buses will continue eastbound on Pico to Bundy where they would turn right. Because the proposed alignment experiences more traffic congestion, it will require 115 additional annual service hours.

On Rapid 7, Pico Boulevard, one trip would be added in the late morning when SMC is in session. The trip will be timed for a major class dismissal when over 60 passengers have been observed trying to board one bus. Rapid 7 was implemented in August 2008 and was immediately successful with 100 passengers or more counted on some trips. The additional round trip will add 450 annual service hours.

On Line 9, the service to Pacific Palisades, evening ridership is approximately 10 passengers per vehicle service hour. One round trip would be eliminated every evening resulting in hourly service after 7 p.m. daily. There would be an annual decrease of 254 service hours.

On Line 10, the Downtown Los Angeles Freeway Express, on Sunday only, the first morning trip to and from Union Station and one trip in the early evening to and from Union Station would be eliminated. The morning trips proposed for elimination average seven passengers per service hour while the evening trips average nine passengers. There would be an annual decrease of 261 service hours.

The Sunset Ride connecting the Arboretum, Water Gardens, Pico and Sunset Park Neighborhoods and Airport Park with SMC campuses will operate at a 30-minute frequency after 4:30 p.m. because of lower ridership at that time. There would be an annual reduction of 508 service hours.

The TIDE Ride, connecting downtown with the south beach parking lots and Main Street, has experienced a decline in ridership in recent years and has the lowest productivity of all BBB services on weekdays with only 12 passengers per vehicle service hour. The current route duplicates the services of Lines 1, 2 and 8. The route of the TIDE ride is proposed to be reconfigured to serve the Annenberg Community Beach House (attached map). The new TIDE Ride would operate weekends only, all year long between 9:45 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., with later hours added for summer. On weekdays, the lower number of anticipated visitors to the Beach House and the availability of parking nearby would not justify the expenditure of additional resources for daily service. Big Blue Bus has bought two special Mini Blue vehicles that are small enough to operate in the Beach House parking lot for passenger drop off and pick up. Operating on the entire proposed route in a one-way loop will result in a 30-minute service frequency. Reconfiguration of the Tide Ride will result in an annual savings of 4,898 annual service hours.

Public Outreach

Before considering a major schedule or route change to any transit service, the City Council must hold a public hearing. Notice of this hearing was advertised in the Santa Monica Daily Press on December 23, 2008 and posted in all buses thirty days prior to the hearing.

In addition to the public hearing, community meetings were held on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the Fairview Library; on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10 a.m. at the Ken Edwards Center and at 6:00 p.m. at the Westside Pavilion; and on Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 10 a.m. at the Santa Monica Main Library. A total of 70 community members attended. The meetings were extensively promoted by “take-ones” and pre-recorded announcements on all of the buses, by notice on www.bigbluebus.com, by direct mailing and e-mail blast to over 600 households on the Big Blue Bus subscriber list, on the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s community events online calendar, on the City’s Environmental Programs online calendar, by UCLA and SMC e-mail blasts to their students and staff, by a news release distribution resulting in press coverage in the Santa Monica Daily Press and the on-line Santa Monica Outlook, in the Biweekly City Manager’s Office Update to City Council and by CityTV on-air announcements. Special meetings were also held for key groups within the City including a presentation to the board of directors of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Main Street Business Improvement Association and the Bayside District.

Financial Impacts & Budget Actions

Implementation of all proposed changes will result in a net savings of 4,299 annual vehicle service hours. This results in a budgetary savings of $430,000 which will offset a portion of unanticipated consequences of the volatility in Big Blue Bus fuel prices. A significant net service reduction is unavoidable because of State budget reductions that are anticipated to impact transit funding.

Prepared by:

Paul Casey, Senior Transit Programs Analyst

Approved:	Forwarded to Council:
Stephanie Negriff Director of Transit Services	P. Lamont Ewell City Manager

Attachment: TideRide Service Changes Spring 2009