This performance indicator measures service effectiveness, or productivity, based on ridership (unlinked boardings) generated for each hour of service operated. Productivity measures allow for direct comparison between routes of vastly different ridership levels, frequencies, and distances by normalizing against service investment in hours. In many cases, a route’s productivity can be increased not by increasing ridership, but by making operations more efficient so the route can be operated with fewer revenue hours.
Rock Region METRO’s productivity guidelines for weekday service are as follows: for Core Local bus service, 20 passengers per hour, and for Coverage Local service, 15 passengers per hour.