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CONNECT is a collaborative effort to decide where bus service should go, when it should run, and how frequently it should operate. Today’s bus network is the result of decades of cumulative small changes and adjustments. The resulting network may not be meeting the goals and priorities of today’s residents, employers, and institutions.
CONNECT is an opportunity to review existing and potential transit demand and need, and to design a network that meets those demands and needs most effectively.
The Choices Report was the first step in CONNECT. It was meant to spark a conversation about transit needs and goals in St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties. The sections below summarize key issues, challenges, and choices. Read on below, download the full report, to understand key background to the CONNECT Transit Plan process.
Read the Full Choices Report
What goals should transit serve?
Public transit can serve many goals, but different people and communities value these goals differently. Understanding which goals matter most in the region is a key step in designing future Transpo and Interurban Trolley service.
Some of these goals are only served if many people use transit. For example, transit can only mitigate congestion and pollution if many people ride the bus rather than drive. We call such goals “ridership goals” because they are achieved through high ridership.
Other goals are served by the simple presence of transit. A bus route through a neighborhood provides residents insurance against isolation. We call these types of goals “coverage goals” because they are achieved in large part by covering geographic areas with service, rather than by high ridership.
Thinking about how much Transpo and Interurban Trolley invest in these goals is a key question at this phase of the planning process.
Economic Opportunity
Transit can give businesses access to more workers; workers access to more jobs and supportive services like childcare; and students more access to education and training.
Support Essential Needs
Transit can help meet the needs of people who are economically insecure, with access to essential services and jobs.
Congestion Mitigation
Because buses carry more people than cars, transit use can mitigate traffic congestion by reducing Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT).
Climate & Environmental Benefits
By reducing VMT, transit use can reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Frequent transit can also support compact development and help conserve land.
Health
Transit can support physical activity, partly because most riders walk to their bus stop, but also because riders tend to walk more in between their transit trips.
Personal Liberty
By providing people the ability to reach more places than they otherwise would, transit can empower people to make choices and fulfill their individual goals.
¿Cómo se consigue una mayor cantidad de pasajeros?
Haciendo que el tránsito sea útil para muchas personas.
El transporte útil proporciona más acceso : le permite alcanzar más oportunidades en un período de tiempo determinado.
Podemos maximizar el acceso mediante:
Proporcionar rutas de alta frecuencia
Formando una red conectada
Hacer que el tránsito sea razonablemente confiable y rápido
Centrándose en lugares que son:
Denso
Transitable
Próximo
Lineal
¿Dónde está la cantidad de pasajeros alta hoy?
Una forma de pensar en el rendimiento del transporte es pensar cuántas personas lo viajan en relación con su costo: es productividad.
Los mapas aquí muestran rutas MARTA que sirven a diferentes áreas coloreadas por su productividad para el otoño de 2019. Puede hacer clic en cada mapa para expandirlo.
¡Esto no significa que las rutas con baja productividad estén fallando! El número de pasajeros no es el único objetivo del tránsito. Algunas rutas están diseñadas para brindar cobertura de tránsito en áreas que no pueden soportar una gran cantidad de pasajeros. Estas rutas tendrán baja productividad.
Where Are There Needs for Transit?
If you asked a transit planner to draw you a route that helped as many people with severe needs as possible, they would look at where low-income people, seniors, youth and people with disabilities live and where they need to go.
The densities at which these people live matters, because at higher densities a single bus stop can be useful to more people in need. However, the transit planner might also try getting the route closer to small numbers of people. In fact, the more distant and scattered people are, the more isolated they can be and the more they might need access to transit.
This map shows the density of people in poverty in the region. For more details on the needs for transit in the region, such as where seniors and youth live, see Chapter 3 of the Choices Report.
What about Equity and Civil Rights?
Regulations by the Federal Transit Administration, based in part on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, require that MACOG and Transpo consider the benefits and burdens that people of color experience from transit service and in the process of planning for transit and transportation projects.
While person’s race or ethnicity does not tell us directly if they need transit, or if they have a propensity to use transit, we know that there is a correlation between race and ethnicity and income and wealth. If you are a person of color in the United States you are more likely to be low-income and less likely to own a car.
This map shows the distribution of people by race and ethnicity across the region. Seeing where people of color live helps to see how much of the population lives in places that are dense, linear, and proximate, and would therefore be well served by a high ridership network design. It also helps us see neighborhoods that are predominately people of color that are not dense, linear, or proximate and would therefore be relatively expensive to serve, but might be important to serve to achieve a coverage goal.
For more details on how civil rights affects transit planning, see Chapter 3 of the Choices Report.
The Existing Transit Network Has Limited Frequency
Frequency of service, or how long you have to wait between buses, is critical to the usefulness of transit. More frequent service dramatically improves access. High frequency reduces travel time by providing several linked benefits:
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Shorter Waits
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Faster Transfers
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Easier Recovery from Disruption
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Greater Spontaneity and Freedom
This map shows the existing bus network by frequency, with routes that run every 30 minutes colored blue and routes that run every 60 minutes colored green. With such limited frequency of service, transit in the region requires long waits and is limited in its ability to provide freedom and access to opportunity.
For more details on the existing transit network , see Chapter 4 of the Choices Report.
¿Cómo debemos diseñar la red MARTA?
Depende.
Imagínese que estamos diseñando una red de tránsito para esta ciudad ficticia. Las líneas son carreteras y los puntos son personas y trabajos.
Los lugares con más puntos juntos están llenos de actividad. Más personas quieren viajar hacia y desde esos lugares. Esa densa actividad se concentra a lo largo de las carreteras principales.
Los autobuses de la imagen son todos los recursos que tenemos para ejecutar el tránsito.
Antes de que podamos planificar las rutas, primero debemos preguntarnos: ¿cuál es nuestro objetivo para el sistema de tránsito de esta ciudad?
Si nuestro objetivo es obtener la mayor cantidad de pasajeros de nuestro sistema, concentraríamos los recursos de tránsito donde la mayoría de las personas y los trabajos están cerca. Luego, podemos brindar un servicio de alta frecuencia que sea muy conveniente y aliente a las personas a viajar en tránsito en esas áreas.
Si nuestro objetivo es obtener cobertura de tránsito en tantas áreas como sea posible, tendremos que distribuir los recursos de tránsito. Las rutas no pueden ser tan frecuentes, por lo que no muchas personas encontrarían el tránsito útil y conveniente. Sin embargo, habra algunos cobertura de tránsito en tantas áreas como sea posible.
Ambos objetivos son importantes, pero dentro de un presupuesto limitado, cambiar hacia uno significa alejarse del otro.
Should the Region Invest More in Transit?
Is there enough transit service in the region? Looking at peer regions, and their transit service, a few key conclusions are clear:
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The region provides relatively little service. None of the peers provided less service per capita than Interurban Trolley. Even when grouped together with Transpo for a regional comparison, only Fort Wayne and Rockford provides less service per capita.
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Ridership is correspondingly low. The single largest contributor to ridership is the amount of service provided. Among the peer regions, those that provide more service generate more ridership.
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Both Transpo and Interurban Trolley’s productivity is very low. The region’s transit ridership has likely been suppressed by low frequency service. As a result, average productivity at both agencies has tended to be lower even than other regions who provide similar total amount of service.
Given these realities, there is a key value question about whether the region should invest more in transit to improve access to opportunity and increase ridership.
For more detail on the existing transit network and peer comparisons, read the full the Choices Report.
Learn More
Learn more by reading the full Choices Report.
Attend a public meeting to ask questions and get more information.
Questions? Contact the Project Team Here!