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Map provided by Jesse Simon of LACMTA.

Integration of Bus and Rail Services in Los Angeles

Within the last year, an internal study by the Los Angeles MTA has revealed something quite remarkable in its ridership patterns. The average number of links in a one-way trip is approximately 2.2. Heretofore it had been thought to be a much lower number, more like 1.5. Prior to this time the number could only be guessed, because no data was available to provide the answer. Most ridership data is collected either by observing passengers on individual vehicles, or from fare payments on individual vehicles. This is the case throughout the industry.

In this study, riders on trains and buses were queried as to their trip origins and destinations, as well as linked boardings of other transit lines for the trip they were taking. This data could then be used for maps similar to the one below. For any particular line, five maps could be produced. The first map of the five shows the numbers of home address locations in each TAZ, of the surveyed riders utilizing the line during the morning peak period. (A TAZ is a Transportation Analysis Zone, but in this case most are simply Census Tracts.) The map shown below is for the Red Line, the subway that is the transit aorta of Los Angeles.

Also produced are two pairs of maps: for each direction of travel on a line, there is one map of color coded origin zones for the surveyed trips involving the line, and another map showing the corresponding destination zones -- four maps in addition to the rider home address map shown below.

The basic finding of this study is that the line is utilized by a riding population that extends far beyond the line itself, in surprisingly high numbers. This is possible only because the bus lines get many people to the rail stations from their originating point, or from rail stations to their destinations, or both. In fact, because of fast and easy connections now available from the the rail services, the rail lines are serving as bridges between otherwise unconnected bus lines. Thus the synergy of the combined system.