A notable omission to Bravo! is the lack of a connection to John Wayne Airport. The closest it gets is Von Karman/Michelson, which is a pretty far walk from the airport. Its current route serves a lot of office complexes, but this would mostly be an area more appropriately served by commuter lines.

Another odd addition I've noticed is that Irvine Metrolink/Amtrak Station has a rapid bus connection. I've never seen stations so far away get this much attention, especially since the station was built primarily for commuters taking Metrolink. Irvine was built for cars and is nowhere near a walkable, sustainable community. Bus service within Irvine is notoriously infrequent (Irvine buses such as route 175 come every SEVENTY minutes). So having this suburban rapid bus connection makes no sense. It only seems to work if the Bravo Green Line operates primarily short trips.

Plus, I can't help but mention that we UC Irvine students are ready for more rapid transit options, but we're unfortunately stuck with the anemic ASUCI Shuttle system and a handful of commuter and community OCTA routes (read: infrequent service). Riders on line 79, which descends from Tustin through UC Irvine, must travel in standing-room only crowds in the mornings, but the bus comes every half hour to every hour. I wish UC Irvine had more green options.

Never say never: South County bus rapid transit

Another piece of news on Bravo!'s routing: there may already be another line in the works, through the South Orange County Major Investment Study (indicated by the yellow line in my own map above). The route would extend from the Bravo! Bristol/Edinger stop and hit every single Metrolink Station to San Juan Capistrano, plus a college and a few malls here and there.

My first thought was, "What?! South County has such weak bus service that it can't possibly warrant a rapid bus line! There's too much suburban sprawl and poor land-use planning to warrant added public transit." But then, a few more thoughts popped into my head:

• Additional service is key towards helping reduce any traffic. I'd love to see Bravo! in South County become a reality than to see $10 billion sunk into widening freeways and arterials, versus the $3-5 billion of forward-thinking investment in public transit. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26431550 - Orange County Register)
• There's already a local-express bus that runs up and down with pretty high frequency: OCTA route 83 runs from Laguna Hills, onto the freeway, through Santa Ana and Disneyland. I've never taken a trip on this route, but whenever I peek through the windows, the bus has always been full. There must be some ridership opportunities that Bravo! can take advantage of. Now this makes good use of freeways.

Take a look at OCTA's South County MIS page. Again, they want to sink $10 billion to encourage the use of cars. Be sure to sign up for the study group and tell them you want additional bus and rail service through all of Orange County.

In my next posts, I'll discuss a possible extension of light rail or true bus rapid transit from Los Angeles into Orange County, and the marketing efforts around Bravo!.