For the first time since the early 1990s, Metro is gearing up to totally restructure its sprawling bus network.

“It’s time for a comprehensive look at our transportation system,” says agency spokesperson Rick Jager.

The improvements will be guided by data and public input, as Metro is trying to rebound from a drastic drop in ridership. In the last five years, weekday bus boardings have plunged 25 percent.

That’s a severe problem.

It’s Metro’s rapidly expanding rail lines that tend to hog the limelight, but the agency’s buses are arguably more important. Compared to trains, they move about 2.5 times as many people daily.

“It makes sense to ensure that bus service—the biggest component of Metro’s system—is redesigned to better connect people with where they want and need to go,” says Jager.

Reversing the system’s ridership decline is one of the goals of Metro’s “NextGen” bus study. Through the end of this year, Metro and an army of planning consultants will research how Angelenos move around the city.

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Conan Cheung, a Metro executive who oversees service development and scheduling, says he’s already heard that riders want more reliable and frequent service, including on weekends.

In a recent survey, 90 percent of Metro’s riders said they want buses to run at least once every 10 minutes, and 73 percent said buses are unreliable. The study also found that among former riders, 73 percent were frustrated by buses getting stuck in the same traffic as cars, 69 percent complained about having to transfer too many times, and 88 percent said Metro bus service is unreliable.

Numbers like these present Metro with a formidable task, because they highlight how the system isn’t satisfying most riders.

Cheung says the agency will try to make riding the bus easier and less confusing, especially for new users. Adding bus priority lanes would require cooperation from cities that might be hesitant to remove car lanes or on-street parking, but Cheung says even street re-engineering will be considered.

“Our whole idea is think beyond the basic bus. You’re always going to have your key trunk lines, the lines on the major corridors that go in a straight line,” he says. “But there may be pockets around the city want something a little bit different. I call those service routes. They make sense in a neighborhood, and help move people around on a neighborhood level.”

Cheung says the way people move around the region today is very different compared to 25 years ago.

“We want to be cognizant that people don’t travel the same way they used to anymore. Ten years ago we all probably went to the mall a fair amount,” he says. “I can’t even remember the last time I went to a mall because I buy everything online. Technology has really changed the way we travel, but it’s also brought new travel challenges as well because there is more goods movement and ride services.”

This month, Metro staffers will hold sessions open to the public to solicit input from four of its regional service councils. More information can be found on Metro’s website.

Over the next two years, the agency will host community events, webcasts, and telephone town halls, where residents can share their concerns by phone. It also has an open survey on its website for Angelenos to share their expectations for the future bus network.

Next year, Metro will release its plan for a redesigned bus system based on that research. After more public engagement, the agency expects to start rolling out its new system by the end of 2019.