Low-Income Residents Seek Access to Transit

Residents of two low-income communities in Ventura County asked a transportation panel Monday to provide them with bus service to get children to school, parents to work and ailing relatives to health clinics.

Speakers from El Rio and Wheeler Canyon were among several groups who suggested ways the Ventura County Transportation Commission could best use state and federal transit money.

The two-hour hearing at Camarillo City Hall provided a glimpse into how low-income residents struggle to get from one place to another without cars.

“They don’t have the luxury of worrying about traffic or deciding whether to use regular or premium gas,” said Jim White, director of transportation and development for Arc Ventura County, a private organization that serves people with disabilities.

White was one of about 75 people who attended the hearing, along with several residents of unincorporated El Rio and from a mobile home park in unincorporated Wheeler Canyon. Their testimony will be researched and compiled into a report that commissioners will use to determine funding priorities.

Several El Rio residents said bus service in their community is inadequate and does not cover places people need to get to, such as the local gymnasium, Rio Mesa High School and a health clinic.

Resident Lizette Trevino said she worries when her teenage daughter and son miss the school bus and have to walk home.

“When they miss the bus at school, they need to walk home through Central [Avenue] up to Santa Clara [Avenue],” Trevino said. “If you’ve ever been through those back roads, there’s nothing safe there for them. It’s dangerous out there.”

Others told the panel that bus riders have to cross heavy traffic at Auto Center Drive and Santa Clara Avenue to get to the nearest bus stop and that one of the drop-off points is a dirt lot that becomes muddy in the rain.

“Our kids have a very difficult time getting around,” said Nyeland Acres resident Soledad Trevino. “They can’t get involved in after-school programs because the gym is a two-mile walk away. There’s all kinds of things that could be incorporated into a bus line.”

Across the county in Wheeler Canyon, the 194 residents of a mobile home park between Santa Paula and Ventura do not have any bus service, said Sergio Hernandez, who has lived in the close-knit enclave for three years.

“What they’re doing is walking two miles to get to the bus stop and there’s no sidewalks,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “Women and children are walking only on paved roads.”

Resident Beatriz Zizumbo, who owns a car, said neighbors are always asking her to take their children to school if they missed the bus.

She said many women are stranded at home all day with young children while their husbands work. She told the board she recently drove a pregnant neighbor who was in labor to a local health clinic.

Low-income residents frequently don’t call 911, she said, because they’re unable to pay for an ambulance.