The Virginian-Pilot
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An overwhelming majority of local bus riders are riding by necessity, not by choice.
Four out of five have no other means of transportation. About three out of five are going to work, and nearly one in five is going to school.
About half come from households with annual incomes of less than $15,000.
That's the profile of a typical Hampton Roads Transit passenger, as revealed by the agency's first comprehensive customer survey.
The survey of bus and ferry customers was taken in July and was mandated by the federal government before the launch of a new transit service, Norfolk's starter light rail, in August. More than 7,500 people responded to written questionnaires handed out on half of all bus and ferry routes.
The results confirm what HRT officials already surmised - the bulk of their customers cannot afford a fare increase. Which is why the agency this month cut back unpopular routes to avoid raising ticket prices.
Passengers also were asked about service improvements. The most common requests were more frequent service, more Sunday service and better on-time performance.
Shortcomings of the system were identified by riders as a lack of benches and shelters.
As for things they like: reasonableness of fares and courtesy of drivers. Overall service quality was scored 3.5 on a scale of 5, which is a "fair" to "good" rating.
The Tide light-rail customers will be surveyed in March. Train customers traditionally are more likely to be riding by choice and have a higher socio-economic profile. That survey was requested by federal authorities as part of a study exploring extending the light-rail line into Virginia Beach.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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In other news
the ex-chairman is STILL being paid.
HRT: Financial black hole
The Middle Path Overlooked
Much of this survey is strikingly similar to the ridership survey in the Comprehensive Operations Analysis (COA) a few years ago, so no suprises here.
The middle path the story overlooks on fares: hike the cash fare, but little - if any - on multiday faremedia. The transit-dependent could avoid paying more by buying 7 and 30 Day cards. In turn, that would aid HRT's cash handling and bus boarding speeds.
In April, 2010 HRT's Transit Riders Advisory Committee (TRAC) endorsed a $2 cash fare, provided that the second quarter in the increase be dedicated to new additional service.
The $1.50 cash fare has been in place since HRT was founded. Michael Townes avoided a hike by raising faremedia prices, but not the cash fare. Reset the balance.
we do not have a viable public transit system
For information I went on the HRT site to get some comute times to see if I could use mass transit if I want to go green. So I live on Shore Drive in Va Beach. So as per the HRT trip planner......
Shore Drive to Old Domination University 3h 10....round trip 6.5 to 7 hours
to Norfolk Naval Base...3h round trip apx 6.5 hours
to Court House Va Beach 2h 15 r/t apx 5.0 to 5.5 hours
to Town Center Va Beach 1h 20 r/t apx 3.5 hours
to Lynnhaven Mall 51 mins r/t apx 2.5 hours...(not so bad its direct)
to Hampton University 3h r/t apx 6.5 hours
got to be a better way...
Google Transit
Google Transit is known for bloopers, some comical. (Granted, they're trying to get the problems out.) As a regular bus rider, I looked up times for your sites. Not knowing from where on Shore Drive, these are one-way times and routings from the transfer center at Shore Drive/Pleasure House Road:
Navy base (Route 1 - 15): 1:26
Courthouse (Route 1/36 - 33): 1:10
Town Center (Route 1/36): :26
HU gets quite complicated: what time of day, does the 1 make it to Wards Corner on schedule, etc.
a bit taken back from by this survay
I thought the results of the survay were pretty telling. How can an area build a transportation system with a ridership base that is reflected by these stats. To be harsh HRT sounds like a "section 8" taxi system. And most of HRT's resources and budget are taken up by the current system. It sounds like to expand the system to effect any meaningful service to the population as a whole would take maybe a doubling of service reach....just sounds like an unachievable feat in any planing aspect. To go down the "expand light rail" path HRT would have to slowly chop the service to the working poor that are most of the ridership base now. Maybe the decision makers do not care as I am sure that $15,000 and under income folks probably do not vote.
so
the survey is being conducted by hrt, to possibly expand to the east, anybody see a problem with this, who wants to bet the survey outcomes in favor of expanding, let norfolk expand within their own city before dragging another city into this train wreck, the taxpayers should determine whether we pay for it, not city council back dooring this deal
Where is the survey of the folks paying the subsidy?
Aw gee, the poor people riding the bus. They can't afford to pay for what they use. Bla, bla, bla.
Folks, between 75% to 80% of the cost of the service they use is paid for by people not riding the bus!
What makes HRT think those paying the subsidy can afford the added burden of paying for other people's rides???
Where is the consideration that taxpayers can't afford to pay for buses they can't use?
Where is the effort to point out the low paid, hard working individuals who pays gas taxes everytime they go to the pump - and those gas taxes aren't used to keep the roads they need in good repair, instead their money is diverted to HRT to be wasted on paying their last CEO $480K a year and building low capacity, slow light rail?
Roads
Although I'm not calling LRT the answer or even bus routes, even if all the transportation money went to maintaining roads, the trans. problem in HR would be nowhere near fixed. There are simply too many people going to the same places at the same time. I take 64 home everyday and see the HOV vastly under utilized because all of us (including myself) commute by themselves to work and back. It would be more efficient & faster if there was a way to get more of us riding together and less cars on the roads. Not only would road maintainence be improved as less wear and tear but also less congestion. Bottom line: we can't just keep paving over everything to get where we are going. I'm not an expert on what the solution is, but thats not it.
Proof Positive
Proof positive that the extremist VBTA doesn't give a darn about the poor. Thanks, Chairman Greenmun.
Gain a ton of customers
Hampton Roads is the earliest rising metro population in the US. That's mainly due to the military. If HRT's MAX routes started at 4am & ran until 8pm, they'd be full everyday. It's not the cost. The Navy will give us vouchers to cover that. We can ride for FREE, yet we still don't. Why? In the military, early is on-time and on-time is late. For 3 years I had a MAX bus stop 50ft from where I worked at NOB. But the first bus got there at 5:52am. I had to be at work by 5:45am and I left work at 6pm, long after the last bus left.
HRT(and TRT back in the day) has NEVER been able to get their heads around this concept. Try it! Run the MAX routes 4am-8pm and advertise it well. You'll be packing them on the buses like sardines in no time.