Name Change

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is transitioning to a new name for their buses. Instead of just "OCTA", it is being called "OC Bus".

Route 175/167 Merger (Effective October 9)

OCTA is calling route 175 "discontinued" and an route 167 "reduced", but from a UCI context, it's really a merger under the name "route 167".

• Old Route 175: http://www.octa.net/eBusBook/RoutePDF/route175.pdf
• Merged Route 167: http://www.octa.net/pdf/oct16/167.pdf (or Google Map Version: https://goo.gl/maps/8i1ik5ZDLk72)

As you can see, the bus will still go from UCI to Michelson and down Jeffrey. The change is that it won't divert into the Yale Loop (making the trip quicker) and instead of terminating near Irvine Valley College, it continues well into Orange.

OC Bus App

OCTA will be releasing an app so you can pay for the bus without cash and without needing to purchase a bus pass ahead of time. See their site here: http://www.octa.net/Bus/Mobile/Mobile-Ticketing-App/

Changes to Passes and Fares

OCTA is attempting to eliminate the 5-Rides ($9 for 5 rides) and 7-Day pass ($25 for 7 straight days of unlimited rides). They account for about 1% of OC Bus fares. Both give discounts over the $2/boarding fare. Cyclists like myself like to have a 5-Rides pass on hand because you can use it 5 times without any time restriction. The 1-Day Pass, 7-Day Pass, and the 30-Day pass give you time-based access to the buses.

OCTA is also considering increasing the cost of the intra-county express routes (including route 213 which comes to the UCI campus) from $2 per ride to $4. The Express 1-Day pass would increase from $5 to $8. The Express 30-Day pass would increase from $69 to $120.

Lastly, OCTA has received a grant to decrease the cost of the 1-Day pass from $5 to $4 for a limited time. This will help determine if the lower cost increases ridership sufficiently to to make up for the reduced per-pass revenue.

If you have an opinion on these fare changes, let OCTA know here: http://www.octa.net/Bus/Proposed-Fare-Policy-Adjustments/

(I put my two-cents in. I said that if they get rid of the 5-Rides pass [the only non-time-based pass], then the OC Bus App should award someone a free boarding for every ten full-fare rides they pay for. This would continue the effective 5-Rides cost of "Buy 10 rides, get one free".)