Network Concepts
Welcome!
In this first round of public outreach, we are sharing network concepts that illustrate two extremely contrasting transit goals. We want to hear what you think about this trade-off between Ridership and Coverage goals in Chico and Oroville. Both concepts fit the financial resources of B-Line, but they deploy those resources according to different priorities. The final network will almost certainly land somewhere in between and where it lands depends on what you tell us.
Neither network is a proposal. Instead, the purpose is to help see the consequences of selecting one goal or the other, so by answering the survey you can tell us what balance of these competing goals you prefer personally and for your community.
How should we design our new network?
It depends on our goal
The Ridership Concept’s goal is to be useful to more people, so that more people ride. Right now, we have lots of routes, but most of them don’t come often enough to be useful to most people. This concept would run higher frequency where there are the most people and destinations, but with a fixed budget, that would mean it couldn’t go everywhere that service goes now.
The Coverage Concept’s goal is to provide some service to as many as people as possible, including all existing riders. This requires spreading service out, but spreading it out means spreading it thin. When we run so many routes, we can’t afford to run the service very often, and because of that, fewer people find the bus system useful.
Why do we have to make this choice? We explain it more fully here.
When we plan for ridership, we get the following benefits:
-
Most people can get to more jobs and opportunities sooner.
-
We help mitigate pollution and congestion.
-
We get more money from fares, so that we can afford more service.
When we spread out our bus service (coverage) we get:
-
Bus service near more people’s homes and jobs.
-
Expansions into new areas on the edges of the region.
-
Lifeline transit access for everyone who needs it.
The two concepts show how we could design the new network depending on which goal is more important, using the same budget we have today. Your opinion will help us understand what to do when we design the final plan.