With bus ridership down, city will look into route and other changes

With Laguna buses moving around town with fewer passengers than a couple of years ago, city staff believe there are ways to serve more people and boost efficiency.

The city is awaiting results of a comprehensive public transit study conducted by a consultant who is analyzing ridership among its trolleys, buses and vans that carry seniors to certain locations provided by the nonprofit Sally’s Fund.

The data should help staff in proposing possible changes to bus routes, Deputy City Manager Ben Siegel said.

From a five-year peak of 91,853 passengers in 2012-13, ridership decreased by more than 11,000 to 80,580 in 2014-15, Siegel said. Drivers log each boarding passenger.

Laguna began trolley service on non-summer weekends last March.

“I would assume that the success of the trolleys, summer and now off-season, is affecting [bus] ridership,” Siegel wrote in an email.

Buses operate Monday through Saturday on three routes. The gray route serves Top of the World, north Laguna and Laguna Canyon, while the blue route serves Arch Beach Heights and Bluebird Canyon.

The red route serves downtown to and from the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point.

It costs adults 75 cents one-way to ride the bus, excluding late June through Labor Day, when the service is free to all passengers. Laguna also offers a $30 monthly pass that provides unlimited rides.

The city budgeted $755,900 on its buses for the current fiscal year. The amount accounts for 25% of Laguna’s overall $3.1 million transportation budget.

Councilman Kelly Boyd, a lifelong Laguna resident, said he has occasionally seen empty buses rolling along city streets.

“They may have outlived their usefulness,” Boyd said. “It’s very important for the report to come back on which direction to take.”

Taxis are also part of the transit study. The city’s taxi voucher program allows residents to pay $5 for a ride that carries up to four people to a stop in downtown after 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday.

Siegel hopes to bring recommendations to the City Council next spring.

“Are there opportunities to improve [the transportation offerings] and consolidate? We think there are,” he said. “Maybe it’s simple route improvements to encourage use by residents or wholesale changes to the system.”