sr-022409-9a~~
c;cvar City Council Report
Santa Monica
City Council Meeting.: February 24, 2009
Agenda Item: ~ _..
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Stephanie Negriff, Director of Transit Services
Subject: Public Hearing Concerning Big Blue Bus. Tide Ride and Annenberg Beach
House Service
Recommended Action
Staff requests that the City Council conduct a public hearing and approve
implementation of a weekend Beach Ride Mini Blue service and a six month extension
of the existing Tide Ride.
Executive Summary
Following the January 27, 2009 public hearing on proposed service and frequency
changes on various Big Blue Bus routes, Council continued consideration of
modifications to the Tide Ride to permit additional public outreach. As a result of the
additional input received, staff recommends that the Tide Ride remain operational for
another six months in order to work with business and community stakeholders to
demonstrate marketing strategies that may enhance the route's viability. Staff also
recommends implementing the Beach Ride service to the Annenberg Community Beach
House on weekends only beginning in May 2009.
Background
Increased transit ridership coupled with reductions in State and County transit funding
has required the Big Blue Bus to evaluate its services to ensure that available transit
resources are being used as efficiently as possible. In doing so, service reductions
were proposed on six routes in order to redeploy less productive service hours to-four
routes that were experiencing passenger overcrowding or schedule adherence
difficulties. Following the public hearing conducted on January 27, 2009, Council
approved all proposed service changes except.for the proposal to reconfigure the Tide
Ride to enable it to serve the Annenberg Community Beach House. In continuing this
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public hearing, staff was directed to conduct additional outreach with community and
business stakeholders.
Discussion
In lieu of reconfiguring the Tide Ride, a separate route is proposed to serve the
Annenberg Community Beach House (attached map). The new Beach Ride would
operate on weekends only from May through September, between 9:45 a.m. and 6:30
p.m., with later hours added for the peak summer period. Big Blue Bus has bought two
special Mini Blue vehicles that are small enough to operate in the Beach House parking
lot for passenger drop off and pickup. Operating on the entire proposed route in a one-
way loop will result in a 30-minute service frequency. The Beach Ride will result in an
increase of 942 annual service hours.
In addition to the service to the Annenberg Community Beach House, staff proposes to
continue to operate the existing Tide Ride for a six month period and work with the staff
of the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau and other interested stakeholders
to develop new marketing strategies that may enhance the route's viability. If there is
no substantive change in the route's performance following these efforts, the route
would be discontinued. The net impact of this six month operation is 2,920 annual
service hours.
Public Outreach
Before considering a major schedule or route change to any transit service, the City
Council must hold a public hearing. Notice of this hearing was advertised in the Santa
Monica Daily Press on December 23, 2008 and posted in all buses thirty days prior to
the January 27, 2009 hearing.
In addition to the public hearing, community meetings were held on Monday, December
8, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the Fairview Library; on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10 a.m.
at the Ken Edwards Center and at 6:00 p.m. at the Westside Pavilion; and on Saturday,
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December 13, 2008 at 10 a.m. at the Santa Monica Main Library. A total of 70
community members attended. The meetings were extensively promoted by "take-
ones" and pre-recorded announcements on all of the buses, by notice on
www.bigbluebus.com, by direct mailing and a-mail blast to over 600 households on the
Big Blue Bus subscriber list, on the Convention and Visitors Bureau's community events
online calendar, on the City's Environmental Programs online calendar, by UCLA and
SMC a-mail blasts to their students and staff, by a news release distribution resulting in
press coverage in the Santa Monica Daily Press and the on-line Santa Monica Lookout,
in the Biweekly City Manager's Office Update to City Council and by CityTV on-air
announcements. Special meetings were also held for key groups .within the City
including presentations to the board of directors of the Cohvention and Visitors Bureau,
the Ocean Park Association., the Main Street Business Improvement Association and
the Bayside District.
Over the next six months City staff will continue to work with community and business
stakeholders on marketing strategies designed to improve the productivity of the
existing Tide Ride.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
Implementation of all proposed changes, including those approved on January 27th, will
result. in a net savings of 1,379 annual vehicle service hours in contrast to the net
savings of 4,299 annual service hours originally proposed. This results in a budgetary
savings of $138,000 instead of $430,000, which will offset a portion of unanticipated
consequences of the volatility in Big Blue Bus fuel prices.
Prepared by:
Paul Casey, Senior Transit Programs Analyst
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Approved: Forwarded to Council:
Negriff '- P.(L.~fmont Eti
Transit Services City Manager
Attachment: Beach Ride Service Changes Spring 2009
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