One of the characteristics that distinguishes the SacRT Forward High Coverage Alternative from the High Ridership (frequency) Alternative is that the High Frequency drops all (hourly) 60-minute buses. See the maps posted here, or on the SacRT Forward Plan Documents page, Alternatives Report.
There are many people who argue that hourly buses are not useful and should be dropped. The arguments are that connections are nearly impossible with a bus that runs so infrequently, trips often take most of the day to complete, the consequences of missing a bus are severe, it costs more to run infrequent buses, and even when a bus runs infrequently it is still mostly empty (most though not all of SacRT’s hourly routes have mostly empty buses). The High Ridership Alternative takes funds from hourly routes and devotes them to more frequent service on 15-minute and 30-minute routes.
The arguments for retaining hourly buses are that any service is better than none, and elimination of these routes could reduce Paratransit coverage. Paratransit (which is both the general term and the name of the local service) must be offered within 3/4 of a mile of a fixed route, so fewer routes means less coverage. Though an agency can choose to offer Paratransit coverage anywhere, it only receives funding for that 3/4 of mile area. Smart Ride, SacRT’s pilot microtransit service currently for Antelope, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, and parts of south Sacramento, could be a good alternative to paratransit service in order to cover these dropped areas, however, the vehicles must be fully accessible, and some of them are not.
There is no right answer to the question, but there is a value choice to be made, more coverage or more frequency, which means more ridership.
Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) 