Ridership Gains Show Buses Are Winning Respect

As thousands of Ventura County commuters are gradually forced to join car and van pools to comply with new air pollution rules, transportation officials hope that they will consider another option--riding the bus.

And there are signs that the public, which has determinedly shied away from public transportation, is finally willing to oblige.

Bus ridership throughout the county has lagged for years due to lack of promotion, inconvenient schedules, unreliable service and commuters’ love affair with cars.

“There used to be the saying, ‘I’d love to take the bus to work, but I have to get home,’ ” said Mary Travis, a Ventura County Transportation Commission manager.

But Travis said recent increases in ridership show that old attitudes are changing and that the quality of bus service is improving in some areas.

The cities of Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, which operate their own bus lines, have reported significant ridership increases for the first time in years.

“A year ago we were averaging about 5,000 to 6,000 passengers a month,” said Roy Myers, a Thousand Oaks traffic engineer. “That has now increased to about 9,000 a month.”

Myers said the city’s purchase of four new buses last year had a lot to do with it.

“The old buses had a tendency to break down,” he said. “The new buses are more reliable and more comfortable.”

Ray Turpin, Simi Valley’s transit director, said bus ridership this year is expected to hit 328,500, up from 288,419 last year. Thousand Oaks’ ridership is now about 108,000 a year.

Turpin attributed the jump in ridership to the city’s decision two years ago to increase the number of buses running at peak traffic hours from four to six. He said some route changes have also been made that have helped boost ridership.

“We’ve turned the corner,” he said. “We only anticipate ridership going up more from here on out.”

The biggest success so far has been on the bus line that serves the west and north county cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and Ojai, according to transportation officials.

“Business is booming for us,” said Maureen Lopez of South Coast Area Transit, which operates the service for the cities.

Lopez said the number of bus passengers has gone from 1.6 million in 1987 to 2.8 million in 1991, up 75%. She said that during the last year SCAT, which operates 12 routes, added three new buses and plans to add another in January.

SCAT’s basic fare is 75 cents, the same as Thousand Oaks’ and Simi Valley’s.

Lopez said the chief reason for increased ridership is an aggressive marketing campaign that includes everything from occasional free ride promotions to television ads.

She said SCAT has an agreement with local media organizations to exchange advertising space on buses for newspaper ads and radio and television spots.

“We get about $250,000 a year in advertising this way,” she said. “There is no other way we could afford that.”

But bus ridership in other areas is at an all-time low.

The number of passengers on the only bus line between Thousand Oaks and Ventura has dropped from 38,316 in 1987 to about 36,200 this year, said Kathy Connell, a county transportation official.

The Interconnect Bus Service, as it is known, was set up in 1976 by agreement among the county and the cities of Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Connell said the line suffers because it has no money to advertise.

“People aren’t aware of what’s available,” she said.

Bus ridership in Moorpark is also lagging. The city only has one minibus operating and it averages about 50 passengers a day, officials said.

Hoping to attract riders, the city plans to offer a $10 pass good for the entire summer, said Susan Cauldwell, assistant to City Manager Steven Kueny. There are also plans to more aggressively promote the service, she said.

In the meantime, county transportation officials said they expect to see more ridership soon because there is now an incentive for residents to change their driving habits.

The county’s Air Pollution Control District is requiring large employers to devise plans to cut the number of single-person trips by employees as part of its strategy to reduce smog in the county, which has among the highest levels of ozone in the nation.

Under the requirements to be phased in over the next year, employers with at least 100 workers must have 1.35 people for each vehicle coming to work, or about four people for every three cars. Later, the county will extend the requirements to employers with 50 employees or more.

Lopez said SCAT is planning to offer discounts to entice employers to subsidize worker bus passes.

For example, a 20-ride ticket will be available for $14, a saving of one dollar. A 30-ride ticket will be offered for $22.50, a saving of $2.50. The tickets can be used at any time.

Travis said the county transportation commission is also working on ways to make it easier for people to use the bus. The commission is expected to establish a toll-free bus information number in June.

“The comments we have gotten from the public before have been that they are confused about what runs where and when,” Travis said. “This would be one number where they could get all their bus service information.”

She said the commission is also expected to hire a consultant to help expand west county service to Point Mugu, Camarillo State Hospital and Camarillo Airport. The commission will also look at establishing bus connections between the east county cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark.