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Executive Summary
As the new home of NMPIRG's environmental work,
Environment New Mexico can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
Albuquerque’s transit system does not measure up.
Analysis of the Transit Profiles of the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database shows that Albuquerque’s transit system ranks in bottom half among 25 cities its size for ridership and cost and service effectiveness. A closer examination reveals that Albuquerque is lagging far behind its western peers: Corpus Christi, TX; Austin, TX; El Paso, TX; and Tucson, AZ. According to the standard measures of transit system quality Albuquerque ranks:
• 15th out of 25 in total annual ridership.
• 15th out of 25 in service effectiveness, the amount of passengers traveling per mile
• 24th out of 25 in cost effectiveness, measured as the amount of money spent per mile ridden by passengers.
Other cities are implementing practical and effective solutions.
Other southwestern cities have used innovative technologies and restructured their public transit systems to compete with the personal automobile by changing the system to meet residents’ needs and providing faster, more efficient service.
• Tucson contracted a private company to evaluate its bus system and design a comprehensive
restructuring plan that will simplify routes and reduce travel time.
• Tucson along with El Paso, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, are decreasing the amount of time riders have to wait between buses by better coordinating bus transfers.
• Austin has focused on capturing a higher share of the transportation market by restructuring its transit system and in the future offering more viable choices to commuters such as a light rail, commuter rail, and HOV, or High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes, for express bus service.
• Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, and Ft. Worth have taken on a more community approach by
offering small neighborhood circulator buses that enable riders to travel short distances from
home to grocery stores, schools, or jobs as well as connect to cross town buses at neighborhood terminals.
• San Antonio has also added amenities to increase safety and enjoyment of riding such as
security cameras and climate-controlled passenger waiting areas. Albuquerque should take public transit more seriously.
According to a 1999 Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments survey:
• 94% of Albuquerque area residents use their personal automobile as their primary mode of
transportation.
• Only 1.4% use the bus as their predominant mode of transportation. Albuquerque has traditionally responded to traffic problems by building more roads and adding lanes.
Like other cities, however, we are finding out the hard way that an aggressive rate of road construction is not the solution, and actually adds to the problem by attracting more development and traffic. We cannot build our way out of traffic. At this point, residents are spending more time than ever waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic and away from work and family.
The public will use transit if it is made efficient and accessible.
Most residents don’t have a viable choice to driving. Commuters don’t ride the bus because it is not convenient, doesn’t come very often, doesn’t reach many areas, and is slow. A morning commute from the Northeast Heights to Downtown Albuquerque could take an hour or more on the bus, twice as long as a drive in a personal car through rush hour traffic.
Recent data shows that many Americans are ready to leave their cars behind and use public transit.
• 80% of Albuquerque residents would use public transit if it resulted in a significant times
savings, according to Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments 1999 survey.
• Today between 50% and 60% of commuter trips to Chicago’s Central Business District are
made on their rail system. 86% of Chicago’s transit commuters have an automobile at home
but choose to use public transit.
• In 1997, 55% of St. Louis’ rail passengers owned two or more cars but chose to ride light
rail.
• 50% of Dallas’ light rail riders are using public transit for the first time.
• In 1990 in San Diego, a western city developed around the automobile like Albuquerque,
37% of its new trolley system riders previously drove alone to work.
• Ridership on Denver’s new Southwest Light Rail Line is at 11,264 per day. As a result,
approximately 10,000 fewer cars are clogging Colorado’s highways each day.
Albuquerque elected officials and transportation planners should implement improvements
immediately.
Considering what other cities have done to upgrade their transit systems, we recommend that Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca and the Albuquerque City Council take the following steps to improvepublic transit:
1. Develop a vision for Albuquerque’s transit system that incorporates innovative ways to
make public transit competitive with the personal automobile. Options should include:
• small neighborhood circulator buses and neighborhood transit centers
• light rail and fixed guided bus ways
• dedicated bus lanes, signal prioritization, and queue jumping
• automated vehicle location systems with digital real time bus arrival information signs
2. Think regionally and include neighboring communities. Traffic is a regional problem, and
intergovernmental agreements can facilitate transit service beyond the city’s service area.
3. Design a comprehensive transit system restructuring plan. The plan should focus on
meeting market demand and improving efficiency. It should be separate from larger
transportation plans, such as the Middle Rio Grande Connections, that are tainted by bad
sprawling road projects.
4. Involve the public. Get public input on what improvements need to be made and what would attract people to use public transit.
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