Using Public Transportation to Reduce the Economic, Social and Human Costs of Personal Immobility (1998) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
AC Transit District's Service Reductions
AC Transit District's Service Reductions
Pages 129-150
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 131... ...
Reduced Operating Assistance: Congress' cuts in federal operating funds meant a loss of millions of dollars in revenue to AC Transit. Before implementing the service reductions, AC Transit attempted to reduce its internal costs by such measures as eliminating vacant positions and shifting the workload to remaining staff; deferring employee pay raises for several years; deferring contributions to the retirement fund; pursuing grants and private-sector partnerships; and working with the school districts to modify the schedules.2 In May 1995, the District also adopted a fare increase, raising the cash fare from $1.10 to $1.25.
|
From page 132... ...
; and Reduced frequencies on 12 lines and restructured others.3 A significant community outreach effort was conducted to inform riders of the proposed service reductions. Outreach included ~ community meetings, 30 public agency briefings, and 6 public hearings.
|
From page 133... ...
Therefore, although the proposal would have resulted in a 16% service reduction, adjustments made by the Board of Directors after the public hearings resulted in an actual reduction of 12%. The annual loss of ridership was projected at 11%.
|
From page 134... ...
In March 1997 the survey was sent to 800 people who had identified themselves as transit users or supporters during the public hearing process. In addition, the survey was distributed at three senior centers and during an on-board survey of routes representative of the entire AC Transit system.
|
From page 135... ...
According to the survey, the principal modes now used by respondents in place of their former trips are: Ride bus at different time or day Walk or bicycle Ride with others BART Taxi Drive alone 40% 27% 24% 21% 21% 10% In addition to these changes in travel modes, survey respondents reported that they take far fewer trips than they did before the cuts. Table 2 shows the 5
|
From page 136... ...
The next two columns of Table 2 show the average weekly number of trips made before the service reductions and now. The final condemn shows the percent change in average weekly trips, indicating that the type of trips affected by the service reductions were cut back by about half, or more, for all trip purposes except jobs and school, where the cutbacks were 36% and 27% respectively.
|
From page 137... ...
From these survey answers, the research team has developed a methodology that calculates the costs to riders as $48.1 million in added travel expenses, past and continuing income losses, and the value of adcled travel time. The following section describes the technical approach and how these results were calculated.
|
From page 138... ...
Economic Results Based on the survey, costs were calculated for added travel expenses, for past and continuing income losses, and for the value of added travel time. Act~ed travel expenses: Forty-three percent of survey respondents reported added costs for their present mode of travel in place of the trip they used to take on AC Transit.
|
From page 139... ...
Other TOTALS . Weekly Expenses Valid Cases Average Total 98 $42.61 $4,178.4 43 19.38 833.3 19 27.80 528.1 29 20.96 607.9 10 31.55 315.5 O O O 23 22.40 515.3 Percentage of Total Expenses 59.9% 11.9 7.6 8.7 4.5 o 7.4 222 1 31.43 1 $6,978.5 1 100.0% Past income losses: An average of $324 per month in lost income was experienced by 7.4% of survey respondents for an average of 4.35 months.
|
From page 140... ...
Dollars in Millions Annual Benefits (to AC Transit) Annual Costs Added travel expenses Annualized value of past income losses Continuing income losses Value of added travel time @ $6.hr.
|
From page 141... ...
IMPLICATIONS OF SERVICE REDUCTIONS ON WELFARE REFORM AND HEALTH CARE ACCESS Public transportation, as an element of welfare reform and access to jobs and health care, is an afterthought with public agencies assigned to these issues. There is an assumption that public transportation will be available.
|
From page 142... ...
He believes that reinstatement of night and weekend bus services will be critical, because people who face termination of welfare benefits will need to take entry level jobs in these off hours. The Network advocates transit fare discounts for low-income workers, who have difficulty purchasing a $45 monthly bus pass on a minimum wage salary.
|
From page 143... ...
As a result, AC Transit riders have recently formed the AC Transit Bus Riders Union. Similar unions exist in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City.
|
From page 144... ...
Mode! for Community Outreach & Public Hearing Process, September 1995.
|
From page 145... ...
C1 Saturday service LI Sunday service O Early a.m. service O Evening or night service Q Service frequency reduction C1 Other (please specify For questions 2 to 7, please select the ObIE trip that has been most affected by the bus service recluchans, in terms of its impact on your daily life.
|
From page 147... ...
in the roun8-trips per week) Check All Trip Purposes Affected O Job 121 School Shopping 121 Health Care Q Senior Center Recreation O Other: (please specify)
|
From page 149... ...
Total AC Transit trips must be multiplied by 0.5 to get round trips by About 20% of AC Transit trips require a transfer, which would require dividing the rowing trip factor of 0.5 by 1.2. However, an uncertain number, which the research term estimates to be at least 10% of trips, must be added, producing a divider of 1.~ rather than 1.2, due to the combined influence of: 1)
|
From page 150... ...
334 x EF = $2.2 million Continuing income losses = $S,654/month x EF x 12 months = $~.7 million/year TESTING FOR SURVEY ACCURACY Some ex-riders were captured by the survey, since 18% of the mailback survey respondents and 29% of the senior center respondents answered that they no longer make the same trip on AC Transit as they did previously. This compares with only 7% of the on-board respondents who answered that they no longer make the some trip.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.