The Orange County Transportation Authority is seeking public feedback through Dec. 13 on transportation strategies for the 2010 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).
The plan, which looks out to 2035, aims to expand transportation choices for commuters, create seamless connections, reduce travel times and work toward environmental sustainability to meet the future needs of Orange County residents, workers and visitors.
Proposed solutions in the 2010 LRTP include:
- Adding 400,000 hours of bus and shuttle service
- Increasing daily Metrolink train service to 76 trains (currently, there are 42 daily trains)
- Adding more than 400 miles of freeway, carpool and toll lanes
The LRTP is available online at www.octa.net/lrtp for the public to complete a five-question survey.
OCTA updates the LRTP every four years to serve as a blueprint for future Orange County transportation enhancements. Since the last update in 2006, several projects were completed including:
- Adding carpool lanes on the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22)
- Completing the Buena Park Metrolink station
- Participating in the launch of Southern California’s 511 traffic information system
Public comments will be incorporated into the LRTP, which is scheduled for completion in early 2011.
(previously sent to Brett Canedy)
To: Brett Canedy, MV Transportation Analyst Date: Nov 12, 2010
From: Bronislaus (Broni) Kopra
Subject: Comments on Transportation Plan Concepts
Reference: Meeting for Transit Study, Nov 11
The meeting on the Transit Study was interesting, informative, and useful. At the time, I did not have any thoughts to share. However, after getting home and thinking about it, I did have some thoughts about how to make such services more popular and successful.
Consider incorporating web based technology with GPS tracking of the vehicles, and showing the progress of the vehicles with minute by minute updates.
A service using this technology would be able to serve both the elderly/handicapped, who need point to point service with pickup and dropoff, and the not-elderly and not-handicapped people who just want to leave their cars at home for local trips. I believe the first priority would be to be able to serve the elderly and handicapped people, who would probably also not be computer literate, and make arrangements by phone. Schedules should be set a day in advance, and those point to point riders would need to make their reservations at least the day before, so schedules can be created and set on a daily basis. The same schedule should be set for all day.
The ridership of the non-handicapped and non-elderly would increase if they have a way to know when to see the bus at the bus stop, so as to not be affected by the point to point pickups other than when to expect the bus. Sometimes the schedule is off, because of traffic or pickup problems, so the internet/GPS system should be a popular feature, encouraging more riders.
I know this is feasible, because golf courses keep track of the location of all the carts on the course if they equip the carts with GPS. Both Arroyo Trabuco and Talega Golf Courses have such systems, if you want to investigate. These systems cost the golf courses approximately $35,000 (last I heard a few years ago) and may be less expensive now. Of course, those are readily designed and available hardware/software systems. Maybe someone is already doing this for buses. I will research that possibility, if you wish. Cars are provided GPS systems for only hundreds of dollars.
I know if I wanted to visit the mall, I would gladly peek at a web site, see when the next bus is expected to pass by, and simply be there 5 or 10 minutes ahead of time.
Returning may be more complicated, requiring something like an email automatic response setup, in which a code can be sent in the title/subject line: one of six codes which would represent each direction of the three colored lines. The automatic response would send the next couple hours of scheduled stops for that line and direction. Most cell phones have this capability now. Also, some more complex phones can simply look at a web site. An iPhone App can look at the bus tracking map. For the non-computer literate, just a phone call to a dispatcher would work for finding out the next immediate time to expect a bus at a certain stop. Places where there can be a sheltered visual terminal for an active status map can help returners, such as at the Norman P. Murray center, and the MV mall, and the Irvine train station. Of course, vandals would eliminate terminals that were completely out in the open, such as at the in-between bus stops.