Realign Phase 1: What We've Learned
In the first half of 2023, our team worked to better understand how peoples' transit needs have changed in the wake of the pandemic. We've worked on a market analysis, a service assessment, and talked to a lot of people throughout the East Bay about their transit needs and documented their feedback. We also encouraged community members to tell us their thoughts through a community survey, through which we received more than 15,000 responses from across the East Bay. Take a moment to see what we've learned:
Based on all that we've learned, we've developed draft guiding principles to help guide how we design network options in fall 2023. Take a moment to review the guiding principles -- you can share your thoughts through a short survey at the bottom of this page.
Draft Guiding Principles
| Guiding Principle: Equity | Guiding Principle: Frequency | Guiding Principle: Reliability |
| Equity: Provide a network that prioritizes mobility for communities who need it the most. | Frequency: Provide frequent service to the most people; frequency’s importance will vary by location and be balanced against geographic coverage and community needs. | Reliability: Provide bus service that is reliable and predictable. |
| Background: Cost of living, displacement, and gentrification make staying local difficult for low-income households; The service area is aging with fewer and fewer youth under 18; community members mentioned the need for weekend, early morning, and late evening schedules for those with non-traditional work hours. | Background: Survey respondents marked more frequent service as the number one improvement that could improve their travel; Denser neighborhoods beget more riders, for AC Transit, most high ridership lines are in the densest parts in the system; Feedback from engagement efforts underscored the importance for frequent service on busier routes throughout the week. | Background: 39% of survey respondents identified reliability as an improvement area (the single most-mentioned area); Riders shared in person that they feel AC Transit bus service is unreliable and unpredictable; These trends track with continued operator availability issues. |
| Intent: Provide the greatest level of service where the greatest concentrations of mobility need exist. | Intent: This principle is intended to provide the highest frequency service where the greatest demand exists while maintaining a network of high-frequency corridors (15 minutes or better) that includes all Planning Areas. | Intent: Provide adequate redundancy in operating resources to ensure that trips that are scheduled are operated. |
| Implementation: Focus service within MTC Equity Priority Communities (EPCs) within AC Transit service area; Maintain or increase service within these areas, with the goal of providing high-frequency service (15 minutes or better) for all EPCs; Frequency or hours of operation may be reduced; suspended lines outside of EPCs would not be restored. | Implementation: Focus service on higher-density areas according to ridership demand. Pre-pandemic service levels may be restored where demand exists; Implementation of frequent service to be balanced against geographic coverage, with at least one high-frequency corridor maintained in each sub-area; Transbay routes and school routes prioritized within Equity Priority Communities, but some routes may be reduced in favor of providing high-frequency service where the highest demand exists; Microtransit or other alternatives to fixed-route service may be explored in areas with low ridership. | Implementation: Added buffer in schedules to account for traffic congestion or unforeseen delays; More resources spent on existing service means fewer resources available to increase service frequencies, expand hours of operation, or operate other existing service; Reductions in service levels may occur to ensure that trips can be delivered consistently and reliably. |