CA: OC’s free trollies offer lessons for transit planners

Six South Orange County cities have again launched their summertime “free trolley” service to take tourists and local residents to the beach, community events and other attractions. Local officials pitch the service—funded by Orange County Transportation Authority grants—as a way to get people out of their cars. The boarding numbers are insignificant in terms of overall traffic, but they reduce the parking burden at popular locales.

It’s hard to pick on this particular service, but the $42 million in Measure M sales-tax funds, plus additional contributions from cities, seems rather steep. We also wonder about the wisdom of making a transportation service “free.” As the old libertarian saw goes, nothing is free—even if it is provided to people on a complimentary basis. It seems like a fee for use is a better approach.

We’d mainly urge OCTA to take lessons from the trollies—and apply them to other transit projects. OC’s bus service is facing lackluster ridership, which is typical for transit systems across the country. Prior to COVID-19, transit ridership was on a downward trend. As of 2018, only 3% of Orange County residents with an available car used transit as their main form of transportation, per a report from the Southern California Association of Governments. Ridership dropped nationwide during the pandemic and hasn’t returned to its pre-existing low levels.

Instead of building massively expensive projects that go to low-demand places, the agency should focus on taking riders where they want to go. It should focus on smaller, flexible vehicles rather than dragging around large, mostly empty buses. Transit should be pleasant and clean. Perhaps that’s the right lesson OCTA can learn from the trollies’ relative success.