IRVINE
Irvine seniors, fearful of losing the city’s neighborhood bus lines in a major route change, are organizing a protest before the Orange County Transportation Authority on Feb. 28.
“The effect on Irvine residents is very dramatic,” said George Searcy, the city’s superintendent of community services. The county’s transportation planners have proposed streamlining the county’s 72 tangled bus routes to follow a “one street, one route” approach.
If the board approves the new routes, they would take effect in June. Under the proposed system, buses would no longer directly take Irvine residents to such destinations as South Coast Plaza, the Tustin Marketplace, the Laguna Hills Mall or the beach. Instead, riders would have to transfer one or more times.
Transit planners predict the new routes would force about 30% of riders countywide to transfer buses more often and about 350 riders to walk farther.
The forum will be held at 9 a.m. Feb. 28 in the Planning Commission hearing room, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana.
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