Rider Comments: Tell Us! Cards

We've received another comment card that speaks to how considerate our drivers are, and how they help contribute to the friendly ambiance of Santa Rosa. Enjoy!

Bus Culture: Guess where I am?

Well, I've been getting a hard time again from my friendly co-workers for not posting regularly, but there is a very good reason.....I'm actually on vacation. I have been traveling lately and have promised myself I wouldn't be a "bus geek" while on my trip. I've succeeded in taking zero pictures of buses and transit to post on the blog while I'm away....except this one. Can you guess where this bus is from? Anyone? Anyone?

Santa Rosa Downtown Transit Mall Photos

Since we started talking about our Santa Rosa Downtown Transit Mall in our most recent blog entry, we thought we'd post some photos to give you a little visual context.

Included in the visuals is our system map, with the Downtown Transit Mall circled in the middle of the City/map along 2nd Street, between Santa Rosa Avenue and B Street. Also included here are a couple of photos showing our Transit Mall, buses and passengers. Keep in mind, the Transit Mall is one short city block (175 yards), and it hosts the following activity:

• 4 transit providers, 14 bus bays, 30 transit routes, and 525 buses per day (375 Santa Rosa CityBus and 150 from other operators);
  
• Open 18 hours per day and 358 days per year (some holidays are closed) and has been operating for 22 years;


• A weekday average of 10,000 passengers travel through it (80% CityBus and 20% other), with approximately 7,000 of those passengers starting or ending their transit journey at the Transit Mall.
  

In our opinion, it is the most urban block in all of Santa Rosa....or even the North Bay!

Rider Comments: Tell Us! Cards

This post includes two Tell Us! comment cards that our riders and system users have submitted.

The comment card regarding our "terminal manager in Downtown Santa Rosa" is about a CityBus staff person dedicated to monitoring the Santa Rosa Downtown Transit Mall.

Never heard of the Santa Rosa Downtown Transit Mall? The Transit Mall is the largest transit hub in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Transit Mall hosts 4 transit providers, 14 bus bays, 30 transit routes, and 525 buses per day (375 Santa Rosa CityBus and 150 from other operators, including Sonoma County Transit, Golden Gate Transit and Mendocino Transit....Napa Vine is hosted across the street). The Santa Rosa Transit Mall is open 18 hours per day and 358 days per year (some holidays are closed) and has been operating for 22 years. The Transit Mall has a weekday average of 10,000 passengers travel through it (80% CityBus and 20% other), with approximately 7,000 of those passengers starting or ending their transit journey at the Transit Mall. In addition security cameras at the facility, the Transit Mall is staffed during hours of operation for customer service and security reasons.

And "Don", the gentleman complimented in the Tell Us! comment card above is one of those staff people. And we noticed that the gentleman making the comment is "bi-continental", in case anyone thinks that the only people who ride Santa Rosa CityBus have never been out of Santa Rosa.

Press Release: Seniors on the Go!

SANTA ROSA CITYBUS CELEBRATES “SENIORS ON THE GO!”

Santa Rosa, CA, TUESDAY, October 6, 2009 – To encourage new senior riders and to “thank” our regular senior riders, Santa Rosa CityBus is again sponsoring its annual Seniors on the Go! celebration. This year, seniors as young as 65 can ride Santa Rosa CityBus for FREE all week beginning Monday, October 19th through Friday, October 23rd 2009.

To ride any Santa Rosa CityBus FREE, seniors simply show the bus driver their Seniors on the Go! 2009 pass when boarding the bus. These special passes are available on every Santa Rosa CityBus, the Transit Department at City Hall, and at the Santa Rosa Senior Center.

Each year, numerous events are planned during Seniors on the Go! week. This year’s activities include:
- A Flu Shot Clinic, Bingo Games, Ballroom Dancing, a Pool Tournament and a Hot Dog Bar-B-Q party will be held at the Santa Rosa Senior Center.

The dates, time and locations for all of this Seniors on the Go! events are listed on the back of the Seniors on the Go! pass.

So grab a pass, jump on the bus and enjoy the convenience and reliability of riding Santa Rosa CityBus during Seniors on the Go! Week. Monday, October 19th through Friday, October 23rd.

For more information call (707) 543-3336!

Transit Budgets: California State Supreme Court Upholds Lower Court Ruling in Support of Transit

Yesterday, October 1, 2009, the California Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling that the State of California has been illegally diverting voter approved funds from public transit purposes to backfill the general fund and its funding deficits. The lawsuit was originally filed by the California Transit Association on behalf of transit operators in the State of California. The ruling on the case rested with the definition of "mass transportation", which the State claimed to mean "a means or system of conveying a large number of people". The Court ruled that the definition of mass transportation that was intended by the voters of California (in the measures controlling the State Transit Assistance funds subject to the lawsuit), to be more synonymous with the definition of "public transportation" and specifically did not include school buses, charter services and services not available to the general public. The State has been diverting State Transit Assistance funds into the General Fund specifically to cover the costs of school bus transportation and transportation of developmentally disabled individuals to regional training centers, neither of which are defined as "mass transportation" by the courts because the services are not "indiscriminately available" to the public.

While it is not clear if, how or when the State will repay funds to transit, this is a positive turn of events for the State's struggling public transit agencies, many of which have been forced to cut service or raise fares (or both) since the onset of the economic downturn in the past year.

Santa Rosa CityBus has traditionally used State Transit Assistance funds (the subject of the lawsuit) for Paratransit service provision and for the provision of Lifeline services, including the Route 19 started in August 2008. Estimates of the amount of State Transit Assistance funds that have been illegally diverted from Sonoma County transit operators alone since the lawsuit was filed (Fiscal Year 2007-2008) through the current fiscal year (Fiscal Year 2009-2010) is $11,432,436. Of that, $4,089,266 was for FY09/10 alone. Statewide, the estimated total for funds illegally diverted from public mass transportation into the State's general fund is $2 billion.

Field Trip: MTC's Minority Citizens Advisory Committee Visits CityBus

On Tuesday afternoon, we had the pleasure of hosting members of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Minority Citizens Advisory Committee for a tour of our Transit Operations Building and one of our Lifeline grant funded routes, the Route 19.

The City of Santa Rosa is home to one of MTC's designated "communities of concern", the Roseland neighborhood. The Roseland neighborhood was the subject of one of the Community Based Transportation Plans funded by MTC. The plan looked at neighborhood demographics and transportation and access challenges and proposed a list of transportation improvement priorities. Included in the list of priorities for the Roseland neighborhood was increases in transit service and coverage. The Lifeline grant program is an effort to focus some funding towards implementation of Community Based Transportation Plan priority projects and in Sonoma County that has meant partially funding the operations of the new Route 19. The Route 19 , which links Roseland and Southwest Santa Rosa to the commercial areas along Santa Rosa Avenue to the east of Highway 101, has been in operations since August 2008 and has had acceptable ridership for its first year of service.

We were notified that members of the Minority Citizens Advisory Committee wanted to take a tour and we were thrilled. We started our tour by discussing a few Santa Rosa CityBus topics of interest, in particular the Lifeline grant program in Sonoma County, and then took a brief tour of our Transit Operations Building and one of our newest hybrid buses. Then we took the Route 6 to the Transit Mall, where we had to hustle over to the Route 19 bus that was ready to depart, right on time! Our lucky driver was Arauna, who has been the star of several of our Bus Operator Interviews posted on this blog. Poor Arauna! I don't think she's ever had a more rambunctious group on her bus. We had so much to talk about! After completing our full Route 19 trip, we had a few minutes to discuss our impending Transit Mall renovation project (partially funded by the Transportation for Livable Communities program). Then we took the Route 3 back to the Transit Operations Building, passing through Railroad Square and past the future Downtown Santa Rosa SMART Station.

It was great fun and informative too. Minority Citizens Advisory Committee members in attendance included Jacquee Castain (Alameda County), Bob Liems (Napa County), James McGhee (San Francisco City and County), Bill Allen (San Mateo County), Michael D'Augelli (Native American Representative), and our local Sonoma County representatives Lee Pierce and David Rosas (who provided the photo above).