Metro should do more to measure the effectiveness of its strategies to bolster transit ridership, according to a report the regional government's auditor released Wednesday.
Metro Auditor Suzanne Flynn, the regional government's independently-elected auditor, released the follow up to a 2010 audit that also called for greater measurement of transit development success.
While Metro doesn't manage the region's transit service, it does have a significant role in planning the transit network. And, as the audit points out, Metro's other responsibilities – including a state mandate to curb urban sprawl – mean Metro has a role in encouraging transit ridership.
In the 2010 audit, Flynn and her staff examined whether transportation projects matched with the region's 2040 planning goals. Their audit was inconclusive, and the auditor called for greater measurement of factors.
In the follow-up audit released this week, Flynn's staff focused on three specific light rail stations – the Tuality Hospital station in Hillsboro, the Killingsworth station in Portland and the 162nd Avenue station on the border between Portland and Gresham.
Even with the focus on specific areas, though, Flynn and her staff said no conclusions could be drawn as to whether development patterns influence ridership. Ridership increased at all three transit stations.
"We were unable to make a determination whether these increases were caused by the strategies," the audit says. "We also were unable to determine if the strategies were ineffective."
Ridership increased nearly 5 percent at the 162nd Avenue station. Conversely, the public sector spent the least amount in improving surroundings in that area.
The public sector has invested in mixed-use buildings, pedestrian improvements and crime prevention programs to improve MAX ridership. At the 162nd Avenue station, that amount totaled $900,000.
By comparison, the public sector has spent $28 million improving the area around the Killingsworth MAX station, the audit said. The Tuality station in Hillsboro has drawn $12 million in transit-oriented public investment.
As part of the audit, Flynn and her staff rode around on MAX, conducted a survey and went door-to-door interviewing residents about their experiences with transit.
They found that about 43 percent of riders felt the publicly funded investments helped encourage them to ride MAX, with about half that many people saying the strategies were ineffective.
The auditor's staff also asked non-riders why they don't ride transit. The top reason was that trips take too long on MAX, or that the MAX system didn't reach enough destinations.
Flynn recommended a series of improvements, including doing further analysis, providing more reports to the Metro Council and the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation, and adjusting plans to react to data as it comes in. She said a follow-up to this audit will be scheduled for 2015.
Metro planning director Robin McArthur said her department is already working on putting those changes in place. The planning department's shift toward outcomes-based planning, like the Southwest Corridor and the East Metro Connections Plan, show that Metro's planning efforts go beyond figuring out where to build transit lines.
McArthur pointed out that once-disparate groups in east Multnomah County are now united in seeking transportation funding, in part because of the collaborative work in the East Metro plan.
Note: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the 2010 audit. The audit measured transportation projects and their relation to the 2040 planning goals. This version has been updated.