By: Phil Bacerra
On Monday, January 25, 2015, at 9 a.m., the OCTA will hold a public hearing that could ultimately take bus lines away from Santa Ana, the city with the most transit ridership in Orange County, and reallocate those resources to areas with less than half the ridership of Santa Ana.
According to SCAG and the US Census, 11% of Santa Ana’s residents take transit. Only 6% of Anaheim’s residents use transit. Only 4% in Fullerton, 3% in Orange, and 1% in Irvine.
The OCTA is proposing to cut 2 transit lines that run through central Santa Ana. These lines run through areas with some of the highest boarding density in Orange County. The 51-Flower connects residents in the Pico-Lowell, Heninger Park, Mid-City, Wilshire Square, and Memorial Park neighborhoods to Santa Ana College and the office buildings and shopping in the South Coast Metro area. The 145-Raitt-Greenville-Fairview provides transportation to residents in Valley Adams, Bella Vista, Casa Bonita, and Artesia-Pilar to connect them to the Civic Center and the South Coast Metro area.
Instead of taking needed transit service away from Santa Ana and giving it to areas that do not use it, the OCTA should make those routes more attractive by adding service. Reduces the 51’s weekday headway from 30-60 minutes between buses to 15-20 minutes, the Saturday headway from 40 minutes to 20 minutes, and add Sunday service with 20 minute headways. The OCTA should add service to the 145 to reduce the weekday headway from 45-60 minutes to at least 20 minute headways. Additional service on the 51 and 145 would also help relieve overcrowding on the 57-Bristol bus line.
Both of these bus lines will intersect the future OC Streetcar route in Downtown Santa Ana and provide residents access to the streetcar, which will also provide these residents regional mobility with access to the Santa Ana Train Depot.
Another bus line that runs through Santa Ana that OCTA is proposing to cut is the 76-MacArthur. This bus line is the only OCTA bus that connects Santa Ana to John Wayne Airport. OCTA should extend the 53-Main Street to John Wayne Airport. Currently, the 53-Main only extends to Main and MacArthur in Santa Ana.
OCTA held community meetings in Orange, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Hills, and Huntington Beach, but has not held any meetings in Santa Ana. Santa Ana residents use bus transit almost two times more than residents in any other city in Orange County, but the OCTA is proposing to take bus lines away from Santa Ana.
Please let the OCTA Board know that you support adding, not removing, transit service in Santa Ana.
Two ways that you can tell the OCTA Board:
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Bus riders pay only 25% of the cost of bus operations.
Yes the operations are subsidized. The theory is that this is an investment in getting the workforce to work. And the environmentalists like getting us out of our cars.