Photo by Chris Rief

Via the Atlantic, here’s a study that shows why Metro’s “on-time” bus performance rate is misleading.

According to an analysis by the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium and Howard University, the on-time arrival performance rate for 15 Metro bus lines is 82 percent in the mornings and 68 percent in the evenings. This sounds like great news! But it’s not as great as it sounds when you realize a Metro bus can be between two minutes early and seven minutes late and still be “on-time.” The industry average is between one minute early and five minutes late.

So the 82 percent on-time rate for morning buses falls to 67 percent when the industry standard is used, while he evening 68 percent on-time rate falls to 55 percent.

The analysis recommends “adopting the one-minute-early-to-five-minutes-late arrival window of the advertised schedules to bring WMATA’s transit system in line with several other transit agencies.”