Bus and similar mass transit services are one of the most cost-efficient and most heavily-used alternative transportation modes. Our county bus system already serves people who choose not to drive cars, as well as those who have no other choice but to use busses to travel to work and run errands. The key for future county transportation is to attract the segment of the population that currently has a choice of transportation modes but chooses to still drive, and also those people who currently have no choice but to drive. Within this segment of the population, there are certain groups for whom no mass transit option will work. One group is the family shopper. For those people who travel to the grocery store, the car is and will be the primary method of transportation. If one's just going to pick up one small item, it's not realistic to expect that person to wait at a bus stop for 15 minutes for a 10-minute bus ride to the store, then wait another 30 minutes for another 10-minute bus ride back home, especially if only 5 minutes are spent within the store. People in that case will always pick a car. Of course, it would be far beneficial if that same person could walk or ride a bike a couple of blocks, but that's not the reality of most residential areas in Santa Cruz County. A similar thing could be said for the mall or downtown shopper, or any shopper getting a large amount of items, such as groceries. It is not realistic of us to expect that a parent would carry 6 full bags of groceries back to his/her home via a trip on the bus! Nor is it realistic to expect holiday shoppers to take mass transit home from the mall carrying umpteen bags of gifts in their hands! It's just not going to happen.
We also cannot eliminate trucks and members of our community who wish to be tourists in other areas far away who choose to drive. Those drivers are too far out of the scope of our county and will never use mass transit. (Do you think you'd ever see a UPS delivery person heading up to UCSC on the Route 1L bus to deliver a package?). The point I'm trying to make here is that there will be some groups of people for whom mass transit will not be an option, and thus we should not aim mass transit towards them. But, the rest of the driving public are more likely to change, given a system that fits their needs. We need them to give up driving at least some of the time to make any mass-transit system economicly feasible. Thus, here are all the the groups that I think we must focus our mass transit system towards:
The first four groups listed are already mass transit users, and many of the fifth are as well. The last two, especially commuters, are not, and should be the focus of new transit plans. How I propose to do this is based upon their needs, which also overlap some with the needs of students. First, the transit system must have competitive travel times to the car, otherwise there's no major incentive for commuters to choose mass transit over their car. Second, it must get them as near as possible to their final destination with as few transfers as possible. Third, we must focus the route of the mass transit so that commuters can easily access the station or stop from their home by the mode of their choice, with the idea of eliminating the commuter's dependance on their car in the congested areas of the county road network.
Bus Service Proposals
There are three ways I feel that we can achieve those three ideas I previously mentioned. First, we must institute a commuter express bus from Watsonville to Santa Cruz along Highway 1 focusing on Santa Cruz commuters. I realize that such routes already exist in the form of Route 91 and other bus routes, but they must become more frequent and add additional stops. You may recall that I previously proposed a slightly different version of this route, but I now feel that this new one does the same job with fewer effects on existing riders. My new Route 91 express would travel from the Watsonville Transit Center to the Santa Cruz Metro Center via the existing route, with stops at the same locations as they are now. The changes I want to make have to do with two new stops, as well as an increase in frequency of all trips, especially between 5:00 and 7:00 AM and 3:00 to 6:00 PM. The key to this system attracting commuters will be new and existing Park & Ride lots, either built from scratch or created at existing shopping areas. These lots will allow commuters to drive, ride their bike, walk, carpool, etc. to the lot and take mass transit to their destination. This is the cheapest and most efficient way to attract people to mass transit in spread-out residential areas such as Aptos and Live Oak. Currently, county Park & Ride lots are located in the following areas:
Formal (all with current express bus access)
Restricted Use (only open at certain times)
Informal (may or may not be paved, not officially sanctioned facility)
I propose the addition or upgrade of the following locations to the above list of Park & Rides (formal or restricted use, with express bus access):
Now that Santa Cruz Metro has taken over day-to-day operations of the Highway 17 Express, there is much talk of route changes to this bus service, ranging from service to UCSC, downtown Santa Cruz, and Watsonville. Personally, only the Watsonville option is realistic. Connecting the Highway 17 Express to downtown or UCSC and then to Mid and South County will take the Highway 17 Express too far out of its way, as there are more daily riders who are traveling to and from Mid and South County versus downtown. I have estimated that, based upon personal estimates and existing travel times of other bus routes, busses will reach the Soquel Drive Park & Ride about 40 minutes earlier or later (depending on the direction of travel) with added trips to the Metro Center and County Government Center. Traveling downtown will thus take up so much extra time that I feel that many riders traveling to Mid and South County will feel that driving would be faster. Instead, I propose spliting up the trips. Trips that currently service the Soquel Drive Park & Ride would now also service the Bay Ave., Rancho Del Mar, and Airport Bl. Park & Ride lots mentioned earlier. Other trips, during off-peak hours and in off-peak directions that currently start or stop at the Scotts Valley Transit Center, would be extended to Pasatiempo, the County Government Center, and the Metro Center (via Highway 17, Ocean Street, Soquel Avenue, and Front Street). The stop at the County Government Center would allow tourists heading to the beach to transfer to the Beach Shuttle. Current bus runs may also have enough demand and balance in volumes to require that a bus travel to both the Metro Center and the Mid and South County park & ride lots; that requires a further study of county traffic patterns. If volumes show that certain runs don't have enough volume from either the Metro Center or Mid and South County to justify servicing those stops, those runs should start or end at the Scotts Valley Transit Center.
I also would like to suggest the addition of a new express bus, what I call Route 95 Scotts Valley/Watsonville Express. This express would travel between Watsonville Transit Center and Inprise in Scotts Valley with stops at the Airport Boulevard Park & Ride lot, Rancho Del Mar Park & Ride lot, Bay Avenue Park & Ride Lot, Soquel Park & Ride lot, Pasatiempo, and all stops along Scotts Valley Drive. This bus will thus allow residents of Mid and South County who commute to Scotts Valley an opportunity to do so on a bus that bypasses the Metro Center. Initially, only two runs in the morning would go from Watsonville to Scotts Valley, and two runs in the evening would go from Scotts Valley to Watsonville, but more runs could be added as necessary.
The second bus proposal I have is an increase in regional local and express bus service. This proposal has two sections to it. The first section is a way to attract more short- and medium-distance drivers to mass transit. I propose converting every other or every third bus run on all the major bus routes (such as Routes 1, 35, 65, 66, 69, 71, etc.) into express and limited-stop routes (i.e. only stopping at the highest volume stops). This will decrease travel times to the major destinations, thus decreasing the time gap between cars and transit and in the process increase ridership. Making only some of the runs express or limited-stop routes will also limit the impact express busses will have to hamper ridership amonst those who have no choice but to take the bus and board and disembark at the lower-volume stops. (Converting many of these routes to pure express routes could do more harm than good by attracting new people to mass transit while alienating those who are already transit riders.) This type of system is already used by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) along the heavily-congested El Camino Real-Santa Clara Street corridor between Palo Alto and San Jose (lines 22 and 300). Exactly how frequent the express should be would depend on actual ridership volumes.
The other part of my second proposal would be to increase the amount and frequency of regional routes which would travel around the major destination points in the many communities around Santa Cruz County, as well as between those communities. This is especially needed in Mid County. One example would be a bus line that went along Soquel Drive between Dominican Hospital and Aptos Village, thus connecting Soquel, Aptos, and northern Live Oak. Another part of this is to have more busses travel between Mid county and Santa Cruz. I realize that many routes already do this, but they all go to the Metro Center and stop, requiring transfers and long waits for riders. What I propose is at the bare minimum having existing busses change route numbers at the Metro Center, such that, for example, someone could travel from Soquel Village to UCSC along two different routes without having to transfer between busses. A prime example of this that Metro is already doing is for lines 69L (Santa Cruz to Capitola Mall) and 54 (Capitola Mall to Aptos/La Selva Beach). Once the 69L reaches the Capitola Mall, it instantly becomes the 54 and continues from the Mall along the 54's route. Other routes where this should become standard practice are the 70 and 1L (creating a Cabrillo-to-UCSC-to-Cabrillo link), 71 and 1B (Watsonville-to-UCSC), and 71 & 1H (UCSC-to-Watsonville). Creating links like these, in both directions (such that round-trips are easy for riders to schedule and organize), can dramatically improve the functionality of the existing system with little change. In fact, all of these links I have proposed can be put in place using the existing bus schedules. Others connecting other locations, such as Live Oak and UCSC, San Lorenzo Valley and UCSC, Scotts Valley and Capitola Mall, etc. could be done in the same manner by juggling around the time points for existing bus routes.
My final proposal is one for increased shuttle and express bus services in major congestion areas in order to increase bus service for short-distance travel. For example, I propose that the Summer beach shuttle be implemented year-round. The shuttle service has already proven itself effective and efficient in reducing commuter and tourist car traffic, and making it year-round can also increase the functionality and appeal of new and existing bus service to the downtown and beach areas. I would leave the shuttle's path intact, as its route is already perfect for downtown, Government Center, and beach travel. This shuttle would appear to tourists and locals heading down to the beach and Boardwalk by connecting them to other parts of the transportation infrastructure, and also be helpful for visitors attending functions at the proposed La Bahia Conference Center on Beach Street. It would also help people who are shopping, touring, or working downtown to quickly and easily connect up with the Metro Center and other bus routes, reducing the need to drive and park downtown. For example, a family spending the weekend in Santa Cruz at the Holiday Inn on Ocean Street could take the shuttle for a day at the Boardwalk, then take the shuttle back up to Downtown for some shopping and dinner, then back to the hotel at the end of the day. The shuttle could also make using the Highway 17 Express a viable alternative to driving over Highway 17 for tourists making a day trip to the beach. These tourists could park at the Fruitvale and Southwest Expressway Park & Ride in San Jose, catch the Highway 17 Express bus at 7:55 AM or 8:10 AM, then travel to the County Government Center (using my earlier proposals) to catch the shuttle to the beach. The process could be reversed in the afternoon to reach their car in San Jose at 4:55 PM or 5:55 PM. This process could also be used for those few but increasing number of people commuting over Highway 17 to Scotts Valley and Downtown Santa Cruz for their high-tech jobs. Other regional shuttles are also possible.
The combination of Highway 1 widening and other freeway and road improvments with increased express, local, and shuttle bus service are the best solutions to our transportation problems when taking into account initial cost, future operational and maintenance costs, and potential of reducing congestion and vehicle trips. There are other options, including rail, as I have proposed before, and I even feel that rail possibly could attract more passengers than busses when both are combined with road improvements. However, there are also some major disadvantages to rail, as I will discuss on my final page devoted to Santa Cruz County transporation plans.
Comments? Questions? Corrections?
E-mail Jeff Waller (mapman@got.net)