RTA: What's good, bad, and improvable (Columbus, Cleveland: insurance, loans, employment)

[btownboss4]

Any insight to why the RTA is getting hit really hard with ridership declines?
https://twitter.com/twkovach/status/1028025312553127936

[october2007]

Just talked to a new woman in my building who said she is going to have to get a car...I said I use the bus and she said it's too expensive. So...if many people feel that way that might have something to do with the declining ridership.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Had another bus that never showed up yesterday. And I had to wait a full hour until the next one. My bus had broken down, apparently, and never made it out of the Westgate Transit Center. I tried to leave Lakewood at 7 pm, and didn't make it back to my home in Maple Heights until almost 10. I was livid.

I'm thinking RTA doesn't service its buses properly and that's why there are so many breakdowns.

I need to get back to Chicago even if it means living in a broom closet. In Chicago, 20 minutes is considered a long, long wait for a bus. Only the worst lines run so infrequently. Here, it's better than average.

Doesn't the RTA have an app that alerts riders whether a bus has broken down or not? It probably won't help you if you are intent on riding the bus instead of hailing for an expensive cab but at least it is informative.

So all of Chicagoland has frequent on time service eh? Maybe I should move there too because many of Boston's suburbs often only have 60+ minute headways during off-peak hours or no off-peak service at all in some places.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

Doesn't the RTA have an app that alerts riders whether a bus has broken down or not? It probably won't help you if you are intent on riding the bus instead of hailing for an expensive cab but at least it is informative.

So all of Chicagoland has frequent on time service eh? Maybe I should move there too because many of Boston's suburbs often only have 60+ minute headways during off-peak hours or no off-peak service at all in some places.

I know it sucks when buses are late, but I feel like I've made this exact point before. Guys, look on your phone!!! I never take a bus without checking to see when it's coming. I do this in Boston, and I do this in Cleveland when I'm there. Do you guys not know about this??

[october2007]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

I know it sucks when buses are late, but I feel like I've made this exact point before. Guys, look on your phone!!! I never take a bus without checking to see when it's coming. I do this in Boston, and I do this in Cleveland when I'm there. Do you guys not know about this??

I had the experience of the app saying bus was on time and I waited and it didn't show up. So I called RTA and they told me it broke down. That happened twice- I don't find that app to be 100% accurate. And once I was on a bus that had a problem and we had to wait for the next bus in 45 minutes - they couldn't even send a replacement bus any sooner. So sometimes the lack of frequency can really be an issue. If a bus doesn't show up and you have to wait an hour for the next one it's still a drag whether you have the app or not.

[j_ws]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Any insight to why the RTA is getting hit really hard with ridership declines?
https://twitter.com/twkovach/status/1028025312553127936

They cut routes and reduce service frequencies which causes ridership to decline, then raise fares. Then when ridership declines more because of the added cost, they cut more routes, which causes ridership to decline again. The death spiral continues.

The lack of funding support to cover the operating cost gap is why there needs to be a tax levy on the ballot. Additionally, the changes in the board will hopefully induce some significant change if the right people can snag positions.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Any insight to why the RTA is getting hit really hard with ridership declines?
https://twitter.com/twkovach/status/1028025312553127936

Let me see... Three days in a row now... Sunday morning I waited for the westbound #26 bus that was to leave Public Square at 11:40, it never showed up. Not merely late, never showed up at all... I ended up taking the 12:10...

(Sunday evening, my southbound #90F scheduled to leave Public Square at 7:10 pm was 25 minutes late... I'll forgive that one as part of I-77 was closed due to construction, resulting in a long detour on the route plus traffic backups...)

Then on Monday evening, I was waiting for the eastbound #55 at the corner of Clifton and Warren in Lakewood... got to the stop by 7:00 pm, the bus that was supposed to leave Clifton and Granger at 7:07 never showed up... I ended up taking the 8:07, mentioned to the driver that the previous bus never showed... he told me it never got out of Westgate due to a breakdown... missed my connection to the #90F leaving Public Square at 8:10 pm... got home a full hour later than I had planned...

Then yesterday evening I was in downtown Lakewood waiting for the eastbound #26 that was due to leave the Rocky River Loop at 7:16... bus never showed up at all... I ended up taking the next one, then had to keep switching seats because this guy with serious B.O. kept following me around... again I missed my connection to the 8:10 #90F... got home an hour late...

Ridership declines? Gee, I wonder why that would be. </sarcasm>

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

So all of Chicagoland has frequent on time service eh? Maybe I should move there too because many of Boston's suburbs often only have 60+ minute headways during off-peak hours or no off-peak service at all in some places.

I can't speak for "all of Chicagoland"... I lived in the city which is served by CTA... except for a few close-in suburbs, most of the rest of "Chicagoland" is served by Pace, which is a completely different system that I've never used. I do know that there are parts of suburbia that are served by no bus service at all, for example, the office complex in Hoffman Estates where I worked for 4.5 years... had to drive there... there were some Pace van pools that served some of those areas, but I didn't bother with those... you had to subscribe monthly which to me was rather expensive... those were the days when gas was still cheap...

In the suburbs, you also have Metra, a network of commuter trains linking the far-flung suburbs to the central city, and they're notable for being comfortable, reliable, and on time. This is a different system than CTA's El, which serves the city and a few close-in suburbs and is like Cleveland's Rapid Transit.

I was talking about the city proper where I lived... and once I no longer worked in the suburbs I had virtually no need to ever travel to them, given that, unlike Cleveland, Chicago is totally self-contained... no need to go to suburban malls for department store shopping, movies, etc. when you have an abundance of all that downtown... indeed, there is nothing the suburbs have that the city doesn't, except for IKEA... and I didn't need to shop for stylish and cheap, but low-quality Scandinavian furniture very often...

On Chicago's North Side, which comprised 95 percent of my stomping grounds, I never knew of any bus lines that ran less frequently than every 20 minutes during the day, and most ran more often than that... so even if there was a breakdown or other delay, you were never left hanging for a solid hour... and most delays in Chicago, when they occur, are due to dense traffic...

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

So all of Chicagoland has frequent on time service eh? Maybe I should move there too because many of Boston's suburbs often only have 60+ minute headways during off-peak hours or no off-peak service at all in some places.

I'm in Brighton Center/Oak Square. The 86 to Cambridge Somerville on weekends can be at 1 hour intervals too, and that's in the city! Thank God I switched to biking. Boston transit is good for going from the outside to downtown sometimes, but still a lot to be desired. As for Chicago, I don't go there much, but I'm not sure I've ever ridden a train and not been approached by what I would have thought Andrew would consider an "undesirable" type.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by j_ws

They cut routes and reduce service frequencies which causes ridership to decline, then raise fares. Then when ridership declines more because of the added cost, they cut more routes, which causes ridership to decline again. The death spiral continues.

The lack of funding support to cover the operating cost gap is why there needs to be a tax levy on the ballot. Additionally, the changes in the board will hopefully induce some significant change if the right people can snag positions.

Still seems like a huge drop (on pace for almost a 30% drop in 3 years) if the cities population is truly stagnating.