Laserfiche WebLink
Appendix "A" <br />Comprehensive Plan <br />Transportation Element <br />Recently, the county began identifying transit mode split on major transit corridors. These mode <br />split data will be used by the county to project transit trip potential during the trip assignment phase <br />of traffic studies. The mode split on a facility will also be used by the county as a basis for <br />identifying potential transit corridors asequ redder Fele 93-5. <br />With respect to transit's share of all trips in the county, transit in 2005 attracted only 0.169% of all <br />person -trips. Since automobile riders do not routinely experience congestion or have difficulty <br />finding free parking, there are few disincentives to driving in the county. Additionally, the county's <br />land use patterns, which feature large setbacks, single family residences, gated communities, and <br />generally low densities, make large-scale transit access and service inconvenient. While the share <br />of transit trips as a percentage of all trips (transit mode split) is small on a countywide basis, the <br />share of trips made by transit is substantially higher in a few corridors. Mode split on these <br />corridors ranges from approximately 1% on major arterials such as parts of SR 60 and US 1 to 7.8% <br />on 45ffi Street in the Gifford area. <br />One ongoing deficiency in the fixed route system is the lack of evening service. For many <br />workers, such as those on a conventional 9am to 5pm schedule, round trip commuting via the <br />transit system is not yet possible. Often, those riders can travel to work on the bus, but have to <br />find a different mode of travel to get home. Recently, Indian River Transit extended the hours of <br />operation to 6:00 pm on four routes. Overall ridership on these routes during extended hours has <br />been good, which indicates that there is a need for additional extended hour service. <br />In 2002, Indian River County amended its Comprehensive Plan to include its first Transit System <br />Level of Service. That level of service focused on one of the six identified adopted Transit <br />Quality and Level of Service indicators, Service Frequency. As its adopted standard, the county <br />adopted TQLOS "E", or 1 -hour headways. <br />In its last two Transit Development Plan (TDP) — Major Updates, the MPO assessed its level of <br />service in several major categories. Recently, Indian River County made significant strides in <br />improving TQLOS in two categories: Service Coverage and Hours of Operation. By carefully <br />identifying areas of greatest need and serving those areas, the county has improved its LOS for <br />coverage from "D" in 1996 to "A" in 2008. In order to achieve and maintain TQLOS "A" for <br />service coverage, the MPO identified and incorporated a number of new routes into the 2030 <br />LRTP. These new routes are shown on Figure 4.12. In terms of hours of operation, the fixed <br />route system has, since 1996, expanded its evening hours from 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm. <br />Nonetheless, the TQLOS indicators do not rate a system at LOS D or above for hours of <br />operation until the system operates on a 12 -hour a day basis. <br />Adopted in 2008, the most recent Transit Development Plan Major Update contains a 10 -year set of <br />programmed transit improvements, including new routes, expanded hours, and service <br />improvements, designed to meet demand through 2018. In the future, the county should apply for <br />grants, prioritize transit projects, implement projects in accordance with that plan, and update that <br />plan on an annual basis. <br />Although the Senior Resource Association (SRA) is the primary demand response operator in the <br />county, there are a growing number of alternative providers. Currently, the SRA provides <br />Community Development Department Indian River County 107 <br />