A Harbor Boulevard pilot cut bus delay by more than 30%. Now OCTA is bringing LYT to the full corridor across five Orange County cities.
Key Takeaways
• In a Fullerton pilot, LYT cut average bus delay by more than 30% per signalized intersection and made trips 7 to 8% faster.
• OCTA is now scaling transit signal priority with LYT across the full Harbor Boulevard corridor, about 12 miles through five Orange County cities.
• LYT is software-first and uses no new hardware, so OCTA can add intersections, routes, and cities without starting over.
• The pilot ran at 9 intersections in Fullerton. The corridor carries roughly 8% of all OCTA riders.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is expanding transit signal priority with LYT, scaling from a successful Harbor Boulevard pilot to the full corridor, real-time and cloud-based, across five Orange County cities.
OCTA first brought in LYT to test a simple idea on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton: move buses through busy intersections more reliably, without adding new roadside or vehicle hardware. The one-year pilot launched in September 2024. LYT is a connected vehicle platform that connects OCTA's existing buses and signals through software, using AI to decide when to grant priority and how to do it without disrupting cross traffic.
The results were clear. Across 9 intersections, LYT cut average bus delay by more than 30% per signal and made trips 7 to 8% faster, as documented in OCTA's final report. The pilot proved the approach on one of the busiest stretches of the corridor, with no new hardware to buy or maintain.
Orange County is built around the car. In an auto-centric region where driving is the default, transit has to be reliable enough to compete, which makes strong performance on a corridor like this one count for even more.
Harbor Boulevard is not a quiet test corridor. According to OCTA, it runs about 12 miles through central Orange County and carries OCTA's most heavily used transit routes, OC Bus Route 43 and OC Rapid 543, which together account for more than 10,000 daily boardings and roughly 8% of all OCTA riders. When buses hold their schedule here, the bus becomes a real alternative to driving. Improving reliability reaches a large share of the people who depend on transit every day, and gives more riders a reason to choose it.
Now OCTA is scaling that result corridor-wide, bringing LYT along the full Harbor Boulevard corridor as it travels through five cities. That is the part transit agencies should pay attention to. A single corridor often crosses several city jurisdictions, each with its own signals, controllers, and traffic operations. Coordinating priority across those boundaries has long been one of the hardest parts of regional transit. It is also exactly what LYT is built for.
OCTA has invested in signal coordination for more than a decade through its voter-approved Measure M program, synchronizing signals across thousands of intersections and multiple agencies. LYT fits that work. Because the platform is software-first and requires no new hardware, OCTA can add intersections, routes, and cities to the program without starting over each time.
The same platform that delivered the Fullerton results now scales across the corridor. As OCTA grows the program, new segments connect into the system LYT already operates. No ripping out infrastructure. No asking each city to replace what it already has. Just more of the corridor coming online, easy to deploy and backed by the white glove service agencies expect from LYT.
This is the kind of growth LYT is built to support. With a decade of proven performance and deployments operating across the country, from San José to Baltimore to Portland to LA Metro, LYT has shown that real-time priority can scale from a single corridor to networks of hundreds of intersections and dozens of routes, all on one platform. Cities trust it. Every agency that has deployed LYT has stayed with LYT.
For OCTA, the expansion is a foundation. Reliable transit that holds its schedule across city lines builds public trust and makes the bus a more competitive choice for riders. It also gives the region a working model for how priority can grow, one corridor and one city at a time, so essential public services keep moving across Orange County.
The pilot proved it. The corridor scale-up is getting underway now, and OCTA and LYT will continue to share results as the program grows. The corridor is connecting, the cities are aligning, and the system is built to keep growing.
If your agency is weighing how to bring signal priority to a corridor or a region, LYT can show you what a software-first deployment looks like.
Connect and Move with LYT.
What is transit signal priority (TSP)?
Transit signal priority is technology that gives buses a better chance at a green light at signalized intersections, helping them stay on schedule. LYT delivers TSP in real time using software, with no new roadside or vehicle hardware.
What is LYT's role in OCTA's transit signal priority project?
LYT provides the transit signal priority platform for OCTA's Harbor Boulevard corridor. The work began as a pilot at 9 intersections in Fullerton and is now scaling across the corridor.
What did the OCTA pilot achieve?
Across 9 intersections in Fullerton, LYT cut average bus delay by more than 30% per signal and made trips 7 to 8% faster, as documented in OCTA's final report.
How big is the corridor?
The Harbor Boulevard corridor runs about 12 miles through five central Orange County cities and carries roughly 8% of all OCTA riders.
Does transit signal priority require new hardware?
Not with LYT. LYT is software-first and connects existing vehicles, signals, and infrastructure, so agencies can deploy transit signal priority with no new roadside or vehicle hardware.