The OCTA coach operators' threatened strikes illustrates the need to develop transit alternatives to the government bus monopoly. If the buses stop running, the vast majority of those who use them have no other way of getting to around.
Privatizing the bus system via competing private operators is one idea, but given the cost of operating those big eco-friendly beasts, privatizing the county bus system as it's currently constituted probably isn't viable. But still worth studying.
Where we ought to be looking is deregulating jitney services. Unfortunately, the OCTA Board of Directors has no authority to do so. I say unfortunate because our current OCTA Board is conservative and creative enough to seriously study such an initiative.
The reality is the regulation of jitneys is the purview of the Public Utilities Commission (why, I don't know), and the PUC is a slow-moving regulatory bureaucracy -- not a laboratory of innovation.
Deregulation could be the key to creation of a true transit marketplace where entrepreneurs provides cheaper, flexible transit alternatives to riding the bus or taking a cab. Given the comparatively low barriers to entry, it's a potential marketplace especially suited to a metropolitan area like ours with a large, energetic immigrant population. But the as transit is currently structured, Orange County's choices are limited to the government bus monopoly or the heavily-regulated (and therefore, difficult to penetrate) taxi market.
Light rail advocates will cite that as a rationale for resurrecting CenterLine, but that really isn't an alternative so much as a even more expensive but inflexible bus-line-on-rails. And the planning of route is can driven as much by politics as by ridership: L.A. Green Line, for example, bypasses what should be an obvious destination: LAX. Why? Because the heavily-regulated taxi companies didn't want the competition and successfully lobbied the LA City Council to leave an LAX station off the line.
Markets are the fastest and most efficient way to meet public needs. It's high time to get government out of the way and allow a transit marketplace to develop.
RE: If the buses stop running, the vast majority of those who use them have no other way of getting to around.
Psst....
Use a Bicycle! Pass the word! ;-D
Yes, many folks won't have a way to get around, or a clue about alternatives, but at the same time there will ( I believe. ) be many who will get their bikes out, or buy a cheap bike, and put pedal to pavement for the duration.
I've been a Bike Commuter for years, with a current 11 mile 1 way trip, so riding 22 miles a day, 6 days a week, won't phasse me one bit ( I know some folks who ride twice that because they want to, not because they have to. )
There are already many low income people who Bike Commute:
Hispanic workers, legal, and not, are on our roads, and sidewalks, day, and night, if you know where to look.
Ever check out the places where the Day Laborers hang out, such as the NW corner of MacArthur & Harbor?
Lots of bikes chained to poles, on any given day. ;-D
I'm hoping to hear from Bus Riders who take to their bikes, and put out a call for such at my place. ;-D.
Yes, Virginia, the OC has a BikeBlogger. ;-D
Posted by: Kiril, The Cycling Dude | July 08, 2007 at 10:31 PM