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Comprehensive Plan Transportation Element Recently, the county began identifying transit mode split on major transit corridors. These mode split data will be used by the county to project transit trip potential during the trip assignment phase of traffic studies. The mode split on a facility will also be used by the county as a basis for identifying potential transit corridors as required under Rule 9J-5. With respect to transit's share of all trips in the county, transit in 2005 attracted only 0.169% of all person -trips. Since automobile riders do not routinely experience congestion or have difficulty finding free parking, there are few disincentives to driving in the county. Additionally, the county's land use patterns, which feature large setbacks, single family residences, gated communities, and generally low densities, make large-scale transit access and service inconvenient. While the share of transit trips as a percentage of all trips (transit mode split) is small on a countywide basis, the share of trips made by transit is substantially higher in a few corridors. Mode split on these corridors ranges from approximately 1% on major arterials such as parts of SR 60 and US 1 to 7.8% on 45h Street in the Gifford area. One ongoing deficiency in the fixed route system is the lack of evening service. For many workers, such as those on a conventional 9am to 5pm schedule, round trip commuting via the transit system is not yet possible. Often, those riders can travel to work on the bus, but have to find a different mode of travel to get home. Recently, Indian River Transit extended the hours of operation to 6:00 pm on four routes. Overall ridership on these routes during extended hours has been good, which indicates that there is a need for additional extended hour service. In 2002, Indian River County amended its Comprehensive Plan to include its first Transit System Level of Service. That level of service focused on one of the six identified adopted Transit Quality and Level of Service indicators, Service Frequency. As its adopted standard, the county adopted TQLOS "E", or 1 -hour headways. In its last two Transit Development Plan (TDP) — Major Updates, the MPO assessed its level of service in several major categories. Recently, Indian River County made significant strides in improving TQLOS in two categories: Service Coverage and Hours of Operation. By carefully identifying areas of greatest need and serving those areas, the county has improved its LOS for coverage from "D" in 1996 to "A" in 2008. In order to achieve and maintain TQLOS "A" for service coverage, the MPO identified and incorporated a number of new routes into the 2030 LRTP. These new routes are shown on Figure 4.12. In terms of hours of operation, the fixed route system has, since 1996, expanded its evening hours from 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm. Nonetheless, the TQLOS indicators do not rate a system at LOS D or above for hours of operation until the system operates on a 12 -hour a day basis. Adopted in 2008, the most recent Transit Development Plan Major Update contains a 10 -year set of programmed transit improvements, including new routes, expanded hours, and service improvements, designed to meet demand through 2018. In the future, the county should apply for grants, prioritize transit projects, implement projects in accordance with that plan, and update that plan on an annual basis. Although the Senior Resource Association (SRA) is the primary demand response operator in the county, there are a growing number of alternative providers. Currently, the SRA provides Community Development Department Indian River County 107