Tell AC Transit: Fix Reliability And Measure It Better

It is frustrating when the bus doesn’t show up when it is supposed to – and even worse when it doesn’t show up at.

A late bus means you can be late to work, miss an appointment, or be left scrambling for another way to get where you need to go. On a route scheduled every 20 or 30 minutes, one missed trip can mean waiting 40 minutes or an hour.

Right now, 1 in 10 AC Transit scheduled trips don’t happen. That is three times worse than what it was last year.

For someone riding twice a day, that is roughly the difference between being stood up by the bus about once a month versus once or twice a week.

Speak out at this week’s AC Transit Board Meeting to demand more reliable bus service and better reliability standards. RSVP via the form here to get an alert for the meeting

The AC Transit Board receives reliability reports only twice a year—but the report has giant blind spots when it goes to what it’s like to be a person waiting for the bus. We are asking the Board to regularly track rider-focused measures, including:

• The percentage of stops reached within a reasonable arrival window

• Excessive gaps between when buses arrive at a stop versus when it was scheduled to be there

• Bus “bunching” – when two buses from the same route show up at the same time

• The worst-performing routes and times

• Inaccuracies between “real-time” information provided from the agency to riders in the form of electronic signs or online portals – and what is actually happening.

Staff should regularly and publicly report the cause of reliability issues and what they are doing to fix it.

Please speak during public comment at the AC Transit Board meeting on Wednesday, September 9, at 5:00 p.m., either in person at 1600 Franklin Street in Oakland or by Zoom.

Briefly explain how unreliable service affects your life, then ask the Board to:

"Adopt rider-focused reliability measures including tracking severe delays, long gaps, bus bunching, and performance by route and time of day. And to require regular, timely reporting on where service falls short and what staff is doing to fix it."

If you cannot attend, you can submit a written public comment. For more detail, read this independent reliability analysis prepared by an East Bay Transit Riders Union volunteer.