 |
Re: Metro board wants to know if transit system is ready for 2028 Olympics? It's not a laughing matter... But this story is kind of a joke....
Author: BOB2
Date: 09-28-2024 - 00:29
NO, MTA has lost over 500,000 daily riders since 2015, even before the Covid losses, and carries just under one million daily riders 1/3 on rail 2/3 on buses. Metrolink ridership is back up more, but still less than pre Covid. Some municipal systems are back up somewhat, but most are not at anywhere near 2015 ridership levels.
SCRTC carried over 2.2 million daily riders in the 1984 Olympics with no rail systems at all.
NO, MTA did not have a "car free" 1984 Olympics.
Much of the "Olympic Miracle" was due to things like scheduling of vacations and moving work start times, not carpooling or transit. Transit daily usage did go up by about 100,000 daily trips during the 1984 Olympics, carpool numbers did not change much, but freeway counts actually increased, but due to staggered schedules peak period congestion delays were actually down during the 1984 Olympics.
This is so full of lies about what was done in the 1984 Olympics that some of it is a sheer fantasy. We only had one bus lane, and we took it out after a performance and safety review in the mid 90's revealed that the Northbound Spring Street Bus Lane actually took nearly 25% longer travel time than buses running south in the mixed flow lanes and had the highest accident rate per mile of the entire SCRTC system.
NO, press releases and fantasies do not make us ready, and poor planning, operational service cuts by the MTA. One example: MTA expanded the LRT system by over 10% in stations and mileage since 2015, but cut total LRT train operations by 11% during the same period, leading to a nearly 20% total cut to service hours per route mile operated since 2105. MTA has cut bus hours, express bus hours, and even has cut the heavy rail hours operated by 8%
And let's not even talk MTA "safety and security" for the 2028 Olympics, or about how long it will take to hire and train an actual MTA Police force of the same quality that SCRTD had back in 1984?
Someone else asked me about this recently, and I have been downloading and reviewing the relevant FTA NTD numbers and the LA regional operators for the last 20 years to see how they have been performing pre and post Covid, and almost all show the same kinds of problems with ridership losses, due, in many cases to service cuts.
MTA is not ready, and false memories/stories full of untrue "nostalgia" about how the 1984 Olympics traffic planning was actually done, don't really help make us any readier.
SCRTC carried over 2.2 million daily riders in the 1984 Olympics with no rail systems at all.
NO, MTA did not have a "car free" 1984 Olympics.
Much of the "Olympic Miracle" was due to things like scheduling of vacations and moving work start times, not carpooling or transit. Transit daily usage did go up by about 100,000 daily trips during the 1984 Olympics, carpool numbers did not change much, but freeway counts actually increased, but due to staggered schedules peak period congestion delays were actually down during the 1984 Olympics.
This is so full of lies about what was done in the 1984 Olympics that some of it is a sheer fantasy. We only had one bus lane, and we took it out after a performance and safety review in the mid 90's revealed that the Northbound Spring Street Bus Lane actually took nearly 25% longer travel time than buses running south in the mixed flow lanes and had the highest accident rate per mile of the entire SCRTC system.
NO, press releases and fantasies do not make us ready, and poor planning, operational service cuts by the MTA. One example: MTA expanded the LRT system by over 10% in stations and mileage since 2015, but cut total LRT train operations by 11% during the same period, leading to a nearly 20% total cut to service hours per route mile operated since 2105. MTA has cut bus hours, express bus hours, and even has cut the heavy rail hours operated by 8%
And let's not even talk MTA "safety and security" for the 2028 Olympics, or about how long it will take to hire and train an actual MTA Police force of the same quality that SCRTD had back in 1984?
Someone else asked me about this recently, and I have been downloading and reviewing the relevant FTA NTD numbers and the LA regional operators for the last 20 years to see how they have been performing pre and post Covid, and almost all show the same kinds of problems with ridership losses, due, in many cases to service cuts.
MTA is not ready, and false memories/stories full of untrue "nostalgia" about how the 1984 Olympics traffic planning was actually done, don't really help make us any readier.
