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Transit Effectiveness Project launches pilots and outreach; staff say early results boost reliability but raise budget and outreach questions
Summary
The MTA's Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP), a multimillion-dollar study and pilot program, aims to improve reliability and ride experience through data-driven route changes and early-action pilots (1 California, J Church). Staff reported pilot gains but said some enforcement/supervision costs will need additional funding; public commenters urged wider CAC engagement and warned of budget risks.
Julie Kirschbaum, program manager for the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP), told the committee the project will produce a five- to seven-year roadmap and a series of early-action pilots while conducting extensive outreach. She said the TEP budget is about $2.4 million, funded primarily with Proposition C dollars and MTA funds, and that analysis combines market research, operations review and service assessment.
Kirschbaum described completed and planned work: purchase and deployment of automatic passenger counters, a 1 California bus pilot that raised on-time performance from 81% to 88% through 100% operator/vehicle availability, increased street supervision and targeted parking enforcement, and a J Church rail pilot aimed at addressing rail constraints. She said the project will evaluate resource-constrained and resource-augmenting alternatives and build an early-action plan to test changes incrementally.
On public outreach, Kirschbaum said TEP had held about 20 community meetings, planned another 30 to 50, used targeted workshops for seniors and people with disabilities, ran online surveys and partnered with neighborhood groups and advocacy organizations for outreach. She said the project will avoid highly controversial changes in early pilots and will phase any difficult trade-offs so the public can participate throughout the process.
Public commenters raised two main concerns: Bob Planthold (Citizens Advisory Committee) said the CAC and some neighborhood voices were not adequately involved in choosing pilot corridors and criticized reliance on press coverage for initial public attention; Tom Radulovich (Livable City) praised the study but urged the MTA not to defer needed reliability and capacity funding to later TEP decisions, warning that the proposed MTA budget appears to be spending reserves and could create a projected $75 million shortfall next year.
Kirschbaum said some elements of on-the-street enforcement and increased street supervision used in pilots are funded outside the TEP budget; MTA staff said the 2008 MTA budget under consideration includes requests for more street supervision to support improved on-time performance. The TEP team expects to wrap the analysis phase in spring 2007 and continue phased implementation and follow-up reporting to the board.
