Cap Metro ponders its role on eve of changes

So, is Capital Metro a transportation utility? A social service? Both? As the transit agency and its board wrestle what would be the most sweeping bus route changes in its 32-year history, and face a vote on those changes Nov. 15, the underlying debate is about what Capital Metro’s mission should be. And what it can be, given the available money. The discussion among the board, staff and the public (or, at least, the small slice that is participating in that debate) has an unusual urgency to it.

And it should, given the transit system’s falling-to-stagnant ridership. The agency’s relevance, due to its shrinking share of the transportation market, seems to be at stake.

First some numbers, some of which regular readers will recognize:

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Capital Metro had about 30.4 million boardings, or about 83,000 a day. That average includes very low ridership on weekends, so the weekday boardings (when the roads are most choked) are closer to 100,000. But given that most transit riders are taking round trips, we’re talking about something like 50,000 people in a city of almost 950,000 people and a metropolitan area of close to 2 million people.

Capital Metro ridership, after trending gently upward for a while, has fallen in recent years and now is actually slightly lower than it was in 1997. The agency’s operating