A review of the PVTA's operations in 2012 will include enhanced technology to measure ridership and determine which stops are busy and when.
Passengers board a PVTA bus.SPRINGFIELD – The region’s two public transit systems in Springfield and Greenfield do a better-than-average job of connecting people with jobs, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.
The Springfield metropolitan area, defined as Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties, ranked 44 out of 100 across the country, according to the report “Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America.”
The compact Honolulu, Hawaii, area was first and the Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and Middletown region of New York ranked last.
In New England, Boston ranked 34th, Hartford 47th and Worcester 80th.
The study comes as high gasoline prices are pushing increasing numbers of people to ride the bus and the Springfield-based Pioneer Valley Transit Authority prepares for a top-to-bottom review of its services to be conducted in 2012, says Mary L. MacInnes, administrator of the PVTA.
Brookings also looked at the Franklin Regional Transit Authority based in Greenfield.
Above: After clicking on the "click to interact" icon, mouse over a bar to see specific data. Definitions are as follows: Coverage - Share of working-age residents near a transit stop | Service frequency - Median wait (minutes) for any rush hour transit vehicle | Job access - Share of all jobs reachable via transit in 90 minutes.
The rankings were based on three factors, according to Alan Berube, senior fellow at Brookings, a Washington-based think tank. The study looked at the number of people who live near a bus stop, how long they can expect to wait for a ride and how many jobs are also located along the transit routes.
In the Pioneer Valley, 72 percent of all working-age adults live within ¾ of a mile of a bus stop, Berube said.
“That’s the outer limit of how far people would walk to meet a transit stop,” he said.
The 72 percent figure beats the national average among the 100-largest metropolitan areas which is 69 percent. What’s more, 98 percent of the low-income working-age population lives close to a bus line.
MacInnes said she takes special pride in that 100 percent of Springfield’s population is within walking distance of a bus stop.
“So, it is saying that at least our route structure is good as far as being accessible to everybody,” MacInnes said.
But the Springfield metropolitan area starts to fall short when it comes to service frequency, according to Berube, who happens to be a Worcester native.
The median wait time was 21.1 minutes, compared to an average of 10.1 minutes across all 100 metro areas. infrequent buses also hurt the region when it comes to “job access.” Just 27 percent of the region’s jobs are reachable in 90 minutes by mass transit.
“This is at rush hour. If there are fewer buses, it’s going to take you longer to get places,” Berube said. “It’s that simple.”
MacInnes said there just aren’t enough riders in a region like ours to justify more frequent service. Also, she said, Springfield is judged against metropolitan areas which have systems that provide speed and more frequent conveyances like subways, trolleys and commuter rail.
“We have buses,” she said. “We have to deal with traffic.”
The study looked at every means of transport that gets a government subsidy, which can include subways, trolleys, subways, commuter rail and even ferry service, Berube said.
Michael Perrault, assistant administrator of the Franklin Regional Transportation Authority, said it’s more challenging to run fixed-route bus service in rural areas like those his agency serves. He also said the Brookings report only looks at one facet of the business, taking people to work while many people use public transportation to shop or go to doctor’s appointments, for instance.
“We don’t do a lot of intense surveying of our riding public,” he said.
This is the first time Brookings has done this particular study, according to Berube.
“We just think there are a lot of things going on in America right now with high gas prices and a greater awareness of public transportation, as a result owning a car is expensive.”
For the PVTA, ridership is up 3 percent year over year through March, from 7.4 million to 7.6 million, according to MacInnes.
She says a “soup-to-nuts” review of the authority’s operations in 2012 will include enhanced technology to measure ridership and determine which stops are busy and when. The authority will also look at what companies are adding jobs, where and when the shifts change.