Figure 1: Route 71A Negley

Transcription

1 ROUTE 71A NEGLEY Route 71A Negley is one of the strongest routes in the PAAC system, and provides service between Highland Park and Downtown Pittsburgh and Highland Park via Oakland, Shadyside, and East Liberty. The route serves several major destinations including Duquesne University, Mercy Hospital, Carlow College, Children s Hospital, Presbyterian University, Hospital, UPMC Shadyside Hospital, Hillman Cancer Center, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Shadyside Hospital, Negley Station on the East Busway, and Highland Park. Variants of the primary route extend service to the 62 nd Street Loop. Route 71A connects with the East Busway at Negley Station. Figure 1: Route 71A Negley Similar Routes While Route 71A operates via a unique routing, it is one of a number of routes that operate between Highland Park, Oakland and/or downtown Pittsburgh. Other routes with similar destinations and alignment include: Page 1

2 Route 74B Highland Park that operates south on Highland Avenue to Oakland via East Liberty and Fifth Avenue and then to Oakland. Route 77D Highland Friendship that operates between Highland Park and downtown Pittsburgh via Friendship, Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, and the Strip District. Route 93A Aspinwall-Cheswick Express that operates between Highland Park and downtown via the East Busway. Route 500 Highland Park-Bellevue that operates between Highland Park and Oakland, downtown Pittsburgh via Highland Avenue to East Liberty and Fifth Avenue. In addition: Route 81B Lincoln operates between Negley Avenue and Craig Street in Oakland along Centre Avenue in the same manner as Route 71A. Between Oakland and downtown, Route 71A is one of many routes that serve the Fifth Avenue/Forbes Avenue corridor. Alignment/Service Patterns From downtown Pittsburgh, Route 71A travels outbound on Forbes Avenue (inbound on Fifth Avenue) turning on Jumonville Street to Fifth Avenue. It stays on Fifth Avenue through Oakland, turning on Craig Street to Centre Avenue. From Centre Avenue, Route 71A travels along Negley Avenue to Bryant Street, turning on Euclid Street to Bunkerhill Street and St. Clair Street. Variant services continue on One Wild Place past the Pittsburgh Zoo to Butler Street, terminating at the 62 nd Street Loop. Route 71A has four variants. One set operates between Highland Park and downtown Pittsburgh, and a second set provides extends outer end service to the 62 nd Street Loop via the Pittsburgh Zoo. Both sets of variants operate inbound and outbound according to a consistent pattern: 71A-I and 71A-O: Operates between Highland Park and Downtown Pittsburgh. Most service (116 one-ways trips) per weekday operate with these variants. 71A-IB and 71A-OB: Follows the same pattern as the primary routing but continues on through Highland Park along One Wild Place to Washington Boulevard and turns around on the 62 nd Street Loop. A total of 22 one-way trips per weekday operate to and from the 62 nd Street Loop, all of which are in the evening, starting around 8:30 pm. Schedule Route 71A operates seven days a week and provides a high level of service. On weekdays, service operates 22 hours per weekday from 4:30 am to 2:30 am, and there are 92 inbound and 93 outbound trips. Peak period headways are as frequent as seven minutes, but most service is scheduled every minutes (see Table 1). Page 2

3 Table 1: Route 71A Schedule Statistics One-Way Trips Headways Span of Service Inbound Outbound (minutes) Weekdays Early AM 4:36 am 5:59 am AM Peak 6:00 am 8:59 am Midday 9:00 am 3:29 pm PM Peak 3:30 am 5:59 pm Evening 6:00 pm 2:30 am Total 4:36 am 2:30 am Saturday 4:33 am 2:55 am Sunday 4:57 am 2:52 am Weekend service is also frequent. On Saturdays, Route 71A provides 46 trips in each direction; on Sundays and holidays there are 35 trips in each direction. Saturday service frequencies are approximately every 25 minutes and on Sundays are approximately every 35 minutes. Travel times during the peak periods are about 48 minutes from Downtown to the end of the line at St Clair and Bunkerhill Streets. Off-peak travel times are approximately 35 minutes. Ridership In 2002, Route 71A carried 8,923 riders per day. After declining marginally between FY 2002 and FY 2006, ridership on 71A increased to its earlier levels, carrying nearly 9,150 riders in FY Ridership is fairly well balanced between inbound and outbound service, with the inbound service carrying 13% more riders than outbound (see Table 2). Passenger boardings are Table 2: Route 71A: Ridership by Time Period and Per Trip Weekday Ridership Ridership/ Trip Inbound Early AM AM Peak 1, Base 2, PM Peak Evening All Day 4, Outbound Early AM AM Peak Base 1, PM Peak 1, Evening 1, All Day 4, Both Directions 9,147 Page 3

4 spread throughout the day, including a significant portion during mid-day. The highest ridership is on inbound trips in the AM Peak (68 riders per trip) and during mid-day (80 riders per trip). On average, nearly 64 riders are on each inbound trip. Outbound services are only slightly less heavily utilized. On average, PM Peak trips carry 70 passengers per trips, and midday trips carry 59 passengers per trip. High ridership during the midday reflects strong travel patterns associated with Oakland universities and hospitals. Many peak period, peak direction trips are overcrowded, indicating that more service is needed. As show in Figure 2, maximum loads exceed 60 passengers on inbound trips from before 7:00 am until noontime. Some PM peak trips also have loads that exceed 60 passengers. Midday maximum loads exceed seated capacity on most trips in both directions. Figure 2: Route 71A Peak Loads by Time of Day (All Sampled Trips) Inbound Outbound 60 Maximum Load :35 6:03 6:54 7:32 7:50 8:15 8:37 9:03 9:39 10:14 10:59 11:54 12:45 13:43 14:32 15:09 15:49 16:26 17:02 17:44 18:50 20:25 22:19 0:26 1:18 The largest numbers of Route 71A riders travel between points along Negley and Centre Avenues and Oakland or downtown Pittsburgh (see Figure 3). However, significantly more passengers ride to and from Oakland than to and from downtown Pittsburgh. This is probably due in part to more competition from other routes, several of which are faster, that also operate between Highland Park and downtown than between Highland Park and Oakland. There are relatively few trips made between Highland Park and East Liberty, and relatively few riders from Highland Park transfer to and from the East Busway services (fewer than 200 per weekday). There are, however, a significant number of riders who transfer between East Busway services and Route 71A for trips to and from Oakland (approximately 500 per weekday). Page 4

5 Figure 3: Route 71A Ridership by Stop (All Variations) ND ST TERMINUS BUTLER #6130 BUTLER LIVONIA BUTLER #6618 BUTLER #6836 BUTLER GALLATIN BUTLER ONE WILD PLACE ONE WILD MELLON MELLON BUNKERHILL ST BUNKER HILL APTS Passengers ST BRYANT MELLON NEGLEY WELLESLEY STANTON BLACK OPP RIPPEY BROAD CORAL BAUM BLVD CENTRE AIKEN CYPRESS MILLVALE MELWOOD CRAIG CRAIG 5TH 5TH BELLEFIELD 5TH BIGELOW (PITT) 5TH OPP ATWOOD 5TH OPP CRAFT 5TH OPP LAMAR MEDIA 5TH OPP FALEDER MONUMENTS 5TH KIRKPATRICK FS 5TH OPP SENECA 5TH OPP GIST 5TH OPP VAN BRAAM FS 5TH STEVENSON 5TH WASHINGTON DIAMOND OPP BOYD FORBES GRANT FORBES WOOD FORBES STANWIX FORBES GRANT FORBES WOOD Load Out from Stop Total Ons Total Offs Load Out From Stop Page 5

6 There is a large amount of travel on Route 71A between Oakland and Downtown, but very little ridership to or from Soho. Likewise, only a very small number of passengers (10) board or alight on the 62 nd Street Loop. Productivity Route 71A s overall productivity is excellent. Table 3: Route 71A Weekday Productivity Route 71A Radial Operating Cost/Passenger $1.50 $2.81 Passengers/Revenue Vehicle Hour Passengers/Total Vehicle Hour Passengers/Revenue Mile Total Vehicle Hours/Rev Vehicle Hours Average Speed Bus Stops/Mile Directness Number of Variations Operating and Subsidy Costs: Route 71A s operating cost per passenger is $1.50, which is very low. Ridership per Unit of Service: Route 71A performs extremely well in all ridership per unit of service measures. The route carries 88.0 passengers per revenue vehicle hour, and 60.5 passengers per total vehicle hour, both of which are roughly twice as high as the category average. The number of passengers per revenue mile is also very high, at 9.1 Total Vehicle Hours Versus Revenue Vehicle Hours: The ratio of total vehicle hours to revenue vehicle hours, is 1.46, which is high, and higher than the average for radial services of The high ratio is due to a very high number of garage pull-ins and pull-outs (114, or one for every 1.6 revenue trips. This suggests that Route 71A service is not scheduled as effectively as it could be. Average Speed: The average speed on Route 71A is 9.7, considerably slower than the radial average of 13.9 miles per hour. The slow speed is a function of the urban operating environment and frequent stops (7.4 per mile). Bus Stops/Mile: Route 71A has an average of 7.4 stops per mile, or a stop every 714 feet. The high number of stops reflects the urban operating environment, but is nearly double the average number of stop for radial routes. Most of the stops along 5 th Avenue and Centre Avenue are well utilized, while stops along Negley are used less frequently. Number of Variations: Route 71A operates with four variants with a relatively straightforward operating strategy. Page 6

7 Service Design Route 71A provides frequent, all-day service between Highland Park, East Liberty and Oakland. Overall, the design of Route 71A is relatively straight-forward and easy to understand. The two secondary route variants, 71A-IB and 71-OB, that provide service at the end of the day between 8:30 pm and 2:00 am, are less well designed. These variants were developed to respond to neighborhood complaints about vehicles layovers and extend service to the 62 nd Street, which is six minutes beyond the normal route terminal. The extension carries virtually no riders. Service Improvement Opportunities Route 71A is one of PAAC s strongest routes and it provides high frequency service along a major corridor between Highland Park, East Liberty, Oakland, and downtown. Although Route 71A already performs extremely well, there are a number of opportunities to significantly improve service: Convert to Rapid Bus Service: Route 71A serves a very high ridership corridor that connects some of Allegheny County s most important activity centers. The conversion of Route 71A to Rapid Bus service could develop a premium service spine between Highland Park, East Liberty, Oakland and downtown around with other area services could be reconfigured. This could provide faster and more convenient service to existing Route 71A riders, and provide stronger connections from surrounding areas. Provide Additional Service: Many peak period, peak direction, operate over capacity, and many midday trips are also very crowded. Additional service should be provided to better balance service levels with passenger demand. Consolidate Stops: Whether or not Route 71A is improved to Rapid Bus services, it has a very large number of stops that slow operations and contributes to the route s very low average operating speeds (less than 10 mph). The consolidation of stops, particularly along Negley Avenue, and within Oakland (where there are 9 stops in a single one-mile long segment), could make service more attractive. Eliminate Service Route 71A Service to the 62 nd Street Loop: The nighttime extension to the 62 nd Street Loop was designed to respond to neighborhood complaints about layovers at the daytime terminal, and was also seen as a way to provide connections to other routes at the 62 nd Street Loop. However, the extension is used by virtually no passengers, and adds 6 minutes to the length of the route. This extension should be eliminated and a new terminal should be identified that is closer to Route 71A s daytime terminal. Operate Service at Clockface Headways: Route 71A already operates at regular headways throughout most of the day on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Weekday outbound services operate at clockface headways, while inbound services do not. With minor schedule changes, it should be possible to operate both inbound and outbound services with to clockface headways. Page 7

8 Provide Frequent Headway-Based Service During Peak Periods: A second potential scheduling option for peak period service would be to operate Route 71A according to a headway based schedules, with services departing at regular intervals during peak periods. Rev Page 8