Riders’ Ideas Sought to Help Plan Future Bus Routes

Bus riders in Glendale and Burbank are being asked to help put together a blueprint for future transit routes at a series of public hearings this week.

The Arroyo Verdugo Transportation Coalition is studying bus routes throughout the area known as the Arroyo Verdugo Corridor in hopes of improving service and boosting ridership, officials said.

The organization is made up of city officials, chamber of commerce representatives, transportation management associations and residents from the two cities plus Pasadena, South Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge.

The study is part of a voluminous state-mandated report charting growth in the five cities, which is being prepared for the Southern California Assn. of Governments. The coalition, which was formed in the late 1980s to lobby for the still-unbuilt Glendale-Burbank light-rail line, was charged two years ago with the task of completing the transportation portion of the document.

Joan Feehan, a La Canada Flintridge councilwoman who heads the coalition, said the group wants to know what bus riders in the region like and don’t like about existing routes, and what changes they would recommend.

“Similar studies performed around the country and in Los Angeles County have shown that more service can actually be provided to more people at less cost when older transit routes and schedules are adapted to meet the current needs of the riding public,” Feehan said.

Tom Flintoft, a consultant to the transportation coalition, said that riders will be able to voice their views directly to the transit engineers who will eventually map out the recommended bus routes to be included in the study.

In addition to route changes, the study may also recommend that some bus routes be taken over from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by local transit services, such as the Glendale Beeline. Bus schedules will also be addressed, Flintoft said.

The transit study is expected to be completed next year and will then be forwarded to the MTA for consideration, officials said.

The hearings are scheduled at 7 p.m. today at the Glendale Public Library auditorium, 222 E. Harvard St., and 6:45 p.m. Thursday at the Burbank Public Library auditorium, 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd.