City Should Test-Drive Shuttle

Thumbs up to Thousand Oaks officials for considering a Smart Shuttle to improve the city’s transportation system. If the City Council votes next month to give it a six-month trial run, residents should take full advantage of the service--and the people who run it should learn from the mistakes made in a similar experiment last year in the San Fernando Valley.

The tryout proposed by the city’s Traffic and Transportation Advisory Commission would put a 22-passenger vehicle to work in the area north of Thousand Oaks Boulevard between Moorpark and Erbes roads. Like a standard 40-passenger bus, the Smart Shuttle would follow a more or less fixed route and cost $1 per ride.

What makes it “smart” is the smaller vehicle’s ability to wander off course a bit to pick up riders at their doors and drop them off closer to their destinations than the nearest bus stop. In addition, riders within the service area could telephone to be picked up.

To be successful, riders and system managers must make the most of these special abilities. In the San Fernando Valley experiment, few riders called and those who did had a hard time getting through or getting an operator to accept their pickup reservation. Requests to veer even a half-block off course for a pickup or delivery went unhonored. In the end, the Smart Shuttle wound up dumbly following the standard route--giving riders basic bus service at a higher cost.

Knowing this, Thousand Oaks can do better. We encourage the City Council to give the Smart Shuttle concept a try. System managers should really push the special traits that make shuttle service more flexible than buses.

Most of all, it’s up to potential riders. They should give the shuttle a good run for its money, demand good service and speak up when they discover problems that need to be fixed.

We believe public transportation is a key to livable cities. As our streets and highways become more crowded, the no-brainer thing to do is build new ones and widen old ones. But in many cases the smart thing to do is to improve public transportation so people who would rather not drive have another option. In addition, efficient and reliable transit systems give independence to the young, the old, the disabled and others who cannot drive. As Ventura County’s population grows--and grows older--the value of all our public transportation efforts will grow.

Test-driving a Smart Shuttle sounds like a smart start for Thousand Oaks.