Get Back to Basics of O.C.’s Transit System

Perhaps, if the planners who created the “point-to-point” system for OCTA were transit dependent, they would have designed it differently. Perhaps, if they had listened to the comments they received, they would not have imposed the system on their customers.

Many of us have been seriously inconvenienced by a system designed by those who never intend to use it and, to borrow from Director Sarah Catz, “acted as if they were the only people who knew about the system.”

It has taken actual ridership figures to legitimize the customer input, namely, that a system that has its only basis in theory, which is soundly contradicted by the underlying geography and is almost unilaterally opposed by those to whom they need to sell it, simply put, would not work. Now, they say, they need to “back off” and move more slowly, and listen to the needs of their customers.

I suggest that they make one, very simple move. And it has its basis in sound management theory. Simply put: “Go with what got you there.” Restore the bus system to the configuration that enjoyed unprecedented growth. Then start to expand it. And, this time, they should listen to their customers.

Leila Christine Erickson

Garden Grove