Bus Riders Request Lower Fares, More Shelters

About 75 mostly dissatisfied commuters told county transportation officials Monday that they want lower fares, more bus shelters and buses that run later at night.

This was the public’s annual chance to discuss its “unmet transit needs,” a standard used to determine how to allocate state and federal transit funds.

Transportation officials said this year’s hearing, which is required by law, was similar to those in other years, except that residents were much more savvy about the process and detailed in defining their transit concerns.

“In years’ past, we have had people saying they need service that already exists,” said Maureen Hooper Lopez, director of transit programs with the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “This year we didn’t have that.”

A number of people suggested to the commission’s Transportation Policy and Planning Committee that they overhaul the patchwork of bus services that links cities throughout the county and replace it with a new system that would oversee all bus routes.

Hooper Lopez said the suggestion for a single provider could be a result of more people traveling between the east and west portions of the county. “SCAT [South Coast Area Transit] is a good provider for the west county, but we are seeing more transfers between systems.”

Overhauling the current system is too broad a goal to be considered an “unmet transit need,’ but Hooper Lopez said such suggestions provide a good barometer for how the public feels about public transportation.

Mary Harris of Thousand Oaks said she wants direct access from her city to the transit center in downtown Oxnard, a main hub of trains and buses throughout the county. “All our buses need to be connected,” she said. “We have great service within Thousand Oaks, but it’s very important to be able to get to Oxnard and catch the train or the bus from there.”

Lance Christensen of Thousand Oaks said he wanted to take a bus to the hearing in Camarillo, but it would have taken too long, so he rode his bicycle in Monday’s rain.

The buses from his house to his job in Agoura Hills don’t start early enough or end late enough to be reliable, he said.

“In order to take the bus, I can’t work more than seven hours a day and still make it home,” he said. “We really need to improve that system.”

Several people spoke out against what some consider a confusing process of allocating money based on unmet transit needs that are “reasonable to meet.” This process requires that proposed changes must not reduce existing services, must be in response to a present--rather than future--need, must have community support and be able to generate a set percentage of the total cost of offering the service.

For instance, a late bus or one that is often full does not qualify as a need that is reasonable to meet, only as an “operational concern.”

Several people said they had brought up concerns at past hearings and nothing had changed, while the available money was allocated to improving roadways.

About $19 million in state and federal funds is available in the upcoming fiscal year and any money not used to satisfy unmet transit needs will go to construct or improve roads, said Mary Travis, the commission’s manager of rail programs. Last year, about $8 million was used for such transit-related services.

“We need to reexamine the starting point of unmet needs,” said Roseann Mikos, a member of a Moorpark citizens transportation advisory committee. “A definition of reasonable that cuts out everything that is needed doesn’t really work,” she said. “If there is something wrong with the law, than we need to fix the law.”

Mikos said all the available money should be spent on public transit. “If we spent all that on improved marketing and better bus shelters, it would be an excellent start.”

At the hearing’s conclusion, Ojai Mayor Suza Francina spoke about the problems she sees with the county’s transit system. “To me it’s so clear from the public testimony that something is deeply wrong,” she said after suggesting that members of the board ride the bus regularly.

“We are in an emergency state and we’re acting like we have all the time in the world. It’s monstrous that households need three cars just to function,” she said. “We created this system; now we need to un-create it.”

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Staff members working with the nine-member transportation policy committee, made up of a city council member from eight of the county’s 10 cities and one county supervisor, said they left the meeting feeling optimistic about what is available and what else can be done.

“I’m leaving fired up about what we can do,” Travis said. “What resonates for me are the people who have such a hard time commuting when they use public transit. We have to be doing more.”

Transportation officials will be compiling the comments voiced Monday, along with 50 or so that were e-mailed, telephoned or written to the transportation commission, and addressing the committee with the findings later in the year.