SAN CLEMENTE : Riders Upset About Change in Bus Lines

A change in two Orange County Transit District bus lines this week designed to ease noise complaints from Capistrano Beach residents has met with a new round of complaints from some who ride the buses.

In July, the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors approved a recommendation made by the Dana Point City Council to terminate lines 1 and 85 at Domingo Avenue in the Doheny Park Road area instead of having them continue through Capistrano Beach on Camino Capistrano to K mart Plaza in San Clemente.

Minibus line 394A was rerouted to shuttle riders between the Domingo Road stop and the K mart Plaza in place of the larger buses.

The vote capped a 10-year crusade by Camino Capistrano residents to clear their neighborhoods of the large, 40-seat buses, which they said were a constant source of noise and air pollution.

Transit authority officials said the changes basically require one extra transfer for local riders.

But 85-year-old Elizabeth Wilhauser of San Clemente, who travels on line 1 to Corona del Mar three times a week to help care for several senior citizens, said the extra transfer to and from K mart Plaza will be an additional 45 minutes each way.

“It’s so unfair. I just can’t believe it,” she said. “We have to contend with a constant increase in noise. We don’t complain.”

Dana Point resident Julius Oblatt, 86, said he will probably have to stop going to K mart Plaza each day to shop because of the bus changes. “If that change is not reversed, I will not wait 40 minutes for a bus connection,” he said. “Some people are going to have to go to work and they will be forced to wait. I can live without going to K mart.”

San Clemente Mayor Joseph Anderson said he recently sent a letter to the transportation authority restating the city’s support for the K mart stops.

“These people don’t know what they’re going to do,” Anderson said. “They don’t seem to have a lot of options. The bus service is very important to them.”

Despite some complaints, the change in service, which started Monday, has been relatively smooth because of an extensive bilingual public education campaign about the new service, transportation authority community service representative James Douglas said.

Any complaints received by riders will be included in a six-month review of the service changes, officials said. The transportation authority is expected to consider results of the review in February.