Valley Is 1st Target in RTD’s Study to Restructure Service

The Southern California Rapid Transit District will conduct a study on restructuring public transportation in the San Fernando Valley in order to improve bus service and attract new riders, officials said Saturday.

Nikolas Patsaouras, director of the RTD, called the upcoming study a “white paper that will look at the total restructure of the whole bus system,” as well as examine other alternative transportation methods, such as light rail, commuter rail and electric trolley.

He added that the study would become the blueprint for restructuring bus transportation throughout Los Angeles.

“But the Valley will be the first,” he said after a meeting of the San Fernando Valley Transportation Summit Group, an informal gathering of RTD officials, transportation agency representatives, city officials and Valley community leaders.

He said the current bus system was designed in the late 1970s, and “too many things have changed since then. School centers have changed. Cultural centers have changed. Government centers have changed. We need to completely reconfigure the system.”

Among strategies to be studied are:

* Scheduling buses to arrive and depart no more than 20 minutes apart to reduce waiting at bus stops.

* Creating a “hub and spoke” network of van pools, car pools, taxis and other services that would feed into major transit transfer centers.

* Designating special lanes for transit vehicles and park-and-ride shuttles.

Patsaouras said requests for a consultant to do the study will be sent out soon. He said he hopes the study will be finished by next summer.

He added that the RTD and other transportation agencies would hold public hearings to gather citizen input for the study.

Transportation officials also said during Saturday’s meeting that a commuter DASH system in Van Nuys would begin operating in March, 1992, with seven natural-gas buses. DASH, a fleet of minibuses running regular circuits, already serves downtown Los Angeles.

In addition, several Valley bus lines, including Ventura Boulevard, will be included in the first phase of a project to convert bus lines to electric trolleys, officials said. Although dates for conversion of specific lines have yet to be determined, 10 lines throughout Los Angeles to be served by 380 electric buses will be involved in the first phase of the project, which is expected to begin within four years.