| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Curry Public Transit | 66 | ||
| Oregon POINT | 126 | ||
| Redwood Coast l | 329 | ||
| Mendocino | 648 | ||
| Lake | 655 | ||
| Humboldt | 839 | ||
Transit Service Patterns in California
Have you ever been curious about transit service patterns in California? What would hourly service patterns tell us about the types of riders the operator is oriented to serve?
Service geared towards commuters have pronounced camel peaks during the AM and PM peak commuting hours. Service geared towards travelers would provide mostly consistent service throughout the day. After all, travelers passing through the airport expect to catch a shuttle, no matter the time-of-day.
We can use GTFS scheduled stop times to count the number of arrivals for each hour of the day and look at how weekday and weekend service differ by operators. Within each Caltrans District, operators are sorted according to the number of weekly trip volume. A great_tables nanoplot is a great way to convey, at a glance, the operator’s hourly service profile while situating the operator’s service in a regional context.
Service Patterns
Higher Peak Service with Steady Midday Service
- This is a common service pattern. There are slight camel peaks during the AM and PM peak periods. Service may drop slightly during early morning, midday, and evening periods, but there is still considerable service. Typically there is no owl service.
- Clearer examples by district: Redwood Coast (District 1), Roseville and Yolobus (District 3), PresidiGo (District 4), County Express (District 5), Delano (District 6), DowneyLINK GMV (District 7), Beaumont Pass (District 8), Tracy (District 10), and Imperial Valley Transit (District 11).
Steady 24 Hour Service
- Bay Area 511 Muni (District 4) provides some level of service at all hours of the day. While it drops to roughly 10-15% capacity between 1 AM - 4 AM, it’s impressive that there are still over 12,000 stops with scheduled service on the system. Service is simiar on the weekends as it is on weekdays.
- Bay Area 511 BART (District 4) is similar to Muni. Two notable differences are that there is no BART service between 2 AM - 3 AM on weekdays (2 AM - 4 AM on weekends) and that weekend service begins one hour later in the morning.
Commuter Service
- Bay Area 511 Mission Bay and Bay Area 511 Commute.org (District 4) both serve commuter riders primarily, with pronounced AM and PM peak service, no scheduled midday arrivals during weekdays, and no weekend service.
Primarily Midday Service
- Cerritos on Wheels (District 7) delivers meals to seniors, and operates strictly during business hours (9 AM - 5 PM). Operating strictly within typical business hours is consistent with an operator providing a type of government service.
Traveler Service
- LAX FlyAway (District 7) operates round-the-clock, dipping only between 2 AM - 3 AM.
- Anaheim Resort (District 12) continuously provides shuttle service to Disneyland visitors, except from 2 AM - 4 AM.
Methodology
About
The Caltrans Division of Data & Digital Services (you may also know us as the California Integrated Travel Project) has a data warehouse that daily ingests all the available GTFS schedule and real-time feeds for all transit operators in the state (and some outside of it too, like Amtrak)! We are working on modernizing the transportation experience through our data and digital lens.
Who / What / Where / When / Why / How
Who: All California operators.
What: The main dataset used for this analysis is stop times, essentially one timetable that shows all the scheduled stop arrivals on a given day.
Where: California - yes, this is for the entire state!
When: We are using the stop times tables spanning April 15 - 21, 2024.
Why: We can see what service patterns look like across operators by hour of the day. In one table, we can quickly see a summary snapshot of what this service pattern is and see the type of riders the operator typically serves. Here’s the same chart made in a paper about for transit in Calgary, Canada.
How: All the stop times are binned by departure hour and aggregated by hour, day, and operator. There is a step to inject rows to hold zeroes where there is no scheduled stop arrival (since those would naturally not appear in our dataset). The dataset is then aggregated for each operator by weekday and weekend. To make regional comparisons easier, a crosswalk is merged in so we know which Caltrans District the operator belongs in.
District Tables
01 - Eureka
02 - Redding
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Sage Stage | 14 | ||
| Lassen Flex | 54 | ||
| Trinity | 57 | ||
| Plumas | 170 | ||
| Lassen | 177 | ||
| Siskiyou | 185 | ||
| Tehama | 327 | ||
| Redding | 1,677 | ||
03 - Marysville
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Auburn | 48 | ||
| Glenn | 66 | ||
| South County Transit Link | 120 | ||
| Tahoe Transportation District | 490 | ||
| El Dorado | 534 | ||
| Tahoe Transportation District GMV | 581 | ||
| Nevada County | 612 | ||
| Placer | 655 | ||
| Roseville | 799 | ||
| TART, North Lake Tahoe | 884 | ||
| Yolobus | 1,134 | ||
| Yuba-Sutter | 1,202 | ||
| Elk Grove | 1,386 | ||
| B-Line | 2,313 | ||
| Unitrans | 5,109 | ||
| Sacramento | 14,925 | ||
04 - Oakland
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Bay Area 511 Rio Vista Delta Breeze | 40 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Treasure Island Ferry | 215 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit | 222 | ||
| Bay Area 511 South San Francisco Shuttle | 255 | ||
| PresidiGo | 344 | ||
| Bay Area 511 MVGO | 360 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Golden Gate Ferry | 450 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Capitol Corridor | 524 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Mission Bay | 550 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry | 580 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Vacaville City Coach | 751 | ||
| Bay Area 511 San Francisco Bay Ferry | 889 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Caltrain | 918 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Fairfield and Suisun Transit | 984 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Emery Go-Round | 1,005 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Golden Gate Transit | 1,276 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Petaluma | 1,282 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Vine Transit | 1,427 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Sonoma County Transit | 1,584 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Commute.org | 1,610 | ||
| Bear | 1,732 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Union City Transit | 1,856 | ||
| Bay Area 511 WestCAT | 2,673 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Tri-Valley Wheels | 2,855 | ||
| Bay Area 511 SolTrans | 3,198 | ||
| Stanford | 3,422 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Marin | 4,187 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Santa Rosa CityBus | 4,318 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Tri Delta | 4,357 | ||
| Bay Area 511 County Connection | 6,265 | ||
| Bay Area 511 BART | 6,681 | ||
| Bay Area 511 SFO AirTrain | 7,343 | ||
| Bay Area 511 SamTrans | 9,459 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Santa Clara Transit | 24,153 | ||
| Bay Area 511 AC Transit | 26,129 | ||
| Bay Area 511 Muni | 64,867 | ||
05 - San Luis Obispo
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Clean Air Express | 100 | ||
| County Express | 181 | ||
| Guadalupe Flyer | 352 | ||
| Santa Ynez Mecatran | 432 | ||
| SLO | 811 | ||
| Santa Maria | 1,339 | ||
| UCSC | 1,831 | ||
| SLORTA | 2,052 | ||
| Santa Cruz | 3,896 | ||
| Monterey Salinas | 6,247 | ||
| SBMTD | 9,395 | ||
06 - Fresno
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Arvin | 155 | ||
| Madera County Connection | 156 | ||
| Fresno County | 202 | ||
| Delano | 320 | ||
| Madera Metro | 561 | ||
| Kern | 582 | ||
| Clovis | 589 | ||
| Kings | 1,977 | ||
| TCRTA TripShot | 2,680 | ||
| GET | 3,998 | ||
| Visalia | 4,479 | ||
| Fresno | 8,470 | ||
07 - Los Angeles
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Get Around Town Express | 12 | ||
| Artesia | 33 | ||
| El Segundo | 35 | ||
| Sierra Madre | 40 | ||
| Cudahy | 77 | ||
| Maywood | 90 | ||
| La Campana | 99 | ||
| Calabasas | 102 | ||
| La Puente | 164 | ||
| Rosemead Passio | 168 | ||
| Huntington | 173 | ||
| Bell Gardens | 180 | ||
| Lawndale Beat GMV | 194 | ||
| Bellflower Bus | 200 | ||
| DowneyLINK GMV | 230 | ||
| Cerritos on Wheels | 252 | ||
| Cerritos on Wheels Website | 252 | ||
| Go West | 350 | ||
| Glendora | 357 | ||
| Lawndale | 388 | ||
| Lynwood | 489 | ||
| Burbank | 495 | ||
| Spirit Bus Passio | 525 | ||
| BruinBus | 535 | ||
| Alhambra | 539 | ||
| Baldwin Park | 563 | ||
| Beach Cities GMV | 564 | ||
| Palos Verdes PTA | 570 | ||
| Arcadia | 595 | ||
| El Monte | 765 | ||
| Commerce | 784 | ||
| LAX FlyAway | 1,519 | ||
| Norwalk Avail | 1,549 | ||
| Glendale | 1,707 | ||
| Montebello | 2,158 | ||
| G Trans | 2,804 | ||
| LADPW | 2,949 | ||
| Antelope Valley Transit Authority | 3,272 | ||
| Pasadena | 4,910 | ||
| Santa Clarita | 5,554 | ||
| Culver City | 5,925 | ||
| VCTC GMV | 7,474 | ||
| Foothill | 7,888 | ||
| Big Blue Bus | 8,351 | ||
| LA Metro Rail | 8,568 | ||
| Long Beach | 11,897 | ||
| LA DOT | 19,380 | ||
| LA Metro Bus | 89,841 | ||
08 - San Bernardino
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Needles | 67 | ||
| Desert Roadrunner | 227 | ||
| Havasu Landing Ferry | 246 | ||
| Desert Roadrunner GMV | 265 | ||
| Corona | 285 | ||
| Morongo Basin | 458 | ||
| Beaumont Pass | 616 | ||
| Mountain Transit | 1,144 | ||
| Metrolink | 1,162 | ||
| SunLine Avail | 3,088 | ||
| Victor Valley | 5,138 | ||
| Victor Valley GMV | 5,367 | ||
| Flixbus | 6,448 | ||
| Riverside | 7,653 | ||
| OmniTrans | 8,647 | ||
09 - Bishop
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Eastern Sierra | 3,234 | ||
10 - Stockton
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Blossom Express | 8 | ||
| eTrans | 30 | ||
| Bay Area 511 ACE | 40 | ||
| YARTS | 63 | ||
| Grapeline | 138 | ||
| Amador | 145 | ||
| Calaveras | 194 | ||
| Tracy | 349 | ||
| Tuolumne Remix | 350 | ||
| Manteca | 403 | ||
| Yosemite Valley Shuttle | 1,064 | ||
| Turlock | 1,460 | ||
| Merced | 1,941 | ||
| StanRTA | 2,084 | ||
| Merced GMV | 2,619 | ||
| San Joaquin | 6,939 | ||
11 - San Diego
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Imperial Valley Transit | 751 | ||
| Yuma | 1,027 | ||
| North County | 8,650 | ||
| San Diego | 46,499 | ||
12 - Irvine
| Stop Arrivals by Hour | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Weekly Trips | Weekday Arrivals | Weekend Arrivals |
| Laguna Beach | 1,302 | ||
| OCTA | 19,673 | ||
| Anaheim Resort | 51,304 | ||