If the Rock Region Metro buses that travel around Little Rock seem empty or nearly empty for parts of the day, it is because they are.

Over the course of a year, the average number of people on a Rock Region Metro bus in service is 6.3.

For all transit agencies nationwide, the number, or average passenger load, is 10.

Rock Region looks much better than its peers when ranked by average passenger load. It ranked second among transit agencies that were selected by the Pulaski County transit agency's consultant on its strategic plan, Nelson/Nygaard.

The transit agency in Des Moines, Iowa, was on top among its peers, with an average passenger load of 6.7. Coming in at No. 10 was the transit agency in Tulsa, which has an average passenger load of 4.5.

"This is low by industry standards, but not terribly unusual for an urbanized area of Little Rock's size," Rubin said of Rock Region's average passenger load. "Smaller locations just do not have the density -- of trips, not people -- required to produce high passenger loads."

To boost their agency's average passenger load, Rock Region officials are counting on voters approving a 0.25 percentage-point increase in the countywide sales tax that would be dedicated to transit. The question is on the March 1 primary election ballot. Early voting begins Tuesday.

The campaign so far largely has been focused on transit officials meeting with neighborhood organizations and other groups. The Downtown Little Rock Partnership and the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce have endorsed the tax.

"There's been a lot of attention initially on the [successful] Arts Center bond issue" vote, said Kathy Webb, a Little Rock city director and a co-chairman of the Committee to Connect campaign, which was created to support the initiative. "Hopefully, we'll get some positive publicity and interest in the next two weeks."

Backers say approval of the tax would give Rock Region Metro more leeway to tailor routes to maximize bus usage.

Rock Region now relies on annual contributions from the county and its major cities. The annual contributions total about $12.5 million. But the contributions are based on route miles in Little Rock, North Little Rock and other parts of the county. If the agency eliminates a route in Little Rock, Little Rock would then pay less in contributions and the other partners would be required to pay more.

The funding formula limits the agency's ability to modify routes that would serve customers better and attract more riders, backers say.

"Our agency compares well to the nine other peer agencies cited that are similar in population, service area and location within the South or Midwest," said Jarod Varner, executive director for Rock Region Metro, formerly Central Arkansas Transit Authority. "This is indicative that we're doing a lot of things well, within the major limits dictated by our current funding structure.

"We're taking steps to improve the passenger experience, with our new buses, free Wi-Fi, the new rrmetro.org website, our free mobile app, new [bus stop] shelters and other in-process projects, but what all commuters want the most is more effective bus service made possible by a vote for public transit investment on March 1."

If approved, the tax would raise about $18 million annually. The agency would use the proceeds to add buses and routes and to increase the frequency of stops.

Rock Region Metro also would use smaller vehicles to add some community bus service in places such as Jacksonville, Sherwood and Maumelle.

In other areas, regular buses on some underutilized routes would be replaced with smaller vehicles for on-demand "flex" routes.

Less certain if the tax is approved are plans to establish rapid transit, which is higher-frequency service using high-capacity buses and, sometimes, special bus lanes.

Two rapid-transit routes using West Markham Street, Kanis Road and South University Avenue would be established only if Rock Region Metro's partners agreed to continue their annual contributions.

Supporters say bus rapid transit would have platform stations that would serve as magnets for redevelopment.

Under the proposal, the partners' contributions likely would be smaller than the amount they pay now, if the contributions are continued. The bus-rapid-transit proposal also would hinge on grants from the Federal Transit Administration, which requires at least 50 percent of the routes to be on dedicated lanes.

The overall proposal is an effort to attract "choice" riders, passengers who would use the buses to commute if the service was more convenient than it is now. Consultant estimates say the plan would boost ridership 30 percent to 40 percent.

Ridership on Rock Region's regular bus routes declined 2.24 percent last year to 2,573,953 passengers, according to agency data.

The average passenger load is the best measurement of transit ridership, according to Tom Rubin of Oakland, Calif., a certified public accountant who consults for transit and other government agencies.

While neither 6.3 or 10 sound like they would make a dent on a standard 40-foot transit bus that can carry about 40 passengers, if the average passenger load reaches 15 or more on that same bus, a transit agency might need to add a bus to that route, he said.

"When you get to that point, at peak hours, you are definitely going to experience overcrowding and difficulty in standing on a bus," Rubin said.

Passengers on buses cannot be counted like passengers on, for instance, airline flights, he said. Airlines typically have a load factor that is easily calculated: How many people versus how many seats were on the flight from Point A to Point B.

Buses, however, likely have nobody on at Point A and gradually fills up, especially at peak times, as it goes to Point B, Point C, Point D, etc. At all stops, people might be getting off and on.

To take into account those variables, the average passenger load is used. It's the product, in Rock Region's case, of dividing its "annual passenger miles" 15,483,333, by the agency's "annual vehicle revenue miles," which is 2,438,883. The figures are from 2013, which are the latest available from the National Transit Database.

"Average passenger miles" is one person going 1 mile in a transit vehicle. "Average vehicle revenue miles" are the miles that all the agency's buses travel in service to the public during the year.

Increasing the average passenger load is the aim of the tax initiative, Varner said.

"The efficiency issue you are focusing on is exactly the issue we are trying to address," he said. "A passenger mile is one passenger traveling 1 mile. A revenue mile is one vehicle traveling 1 mile. You want your service to be in places where many people want to travel that 1 mile on your vehicle, not one person.

"That's how you improve your average load factor, and that is exactly the aim of our initiative. We are trying to move away from a funding structure that locks us into investing revenue miles into areas that generate few passenger miles."

A Section on 02/14/2016