SR 08-23-2011 3R (2)City Council Meeting: August 23, 2011
Agenda Item: 3 -" R'
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Fred Gilliam, Acting Director of Transit Services
Subject: Big Blue Bus Unlimited Ride Transit Pass Program with Santa Monica
College
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute an agreement to renew the Big Blue Bus transit pass program with Santa
Monica College (SMC), Any Line, Any Time, for FY 2011-12 for the annual amount of
$1,219,480.
Executive Summary
Big Blue Bus currently has an .agreement with SMC to provide unlimited access to all
Big Blue Bus services to all student, staff, and faculty members utilizing the Any Line,
Any Time transit pass program. Under this agreement, Big Blue Bus charges SMC a
fixed annual amount for all passenger boardings made by holders of an SMC
identification card with a current semester sticker. The original agreement became
effective on July 1, 2008 and was most recently renewed for the period of July 1, 2010
through June 30, 2011. Staff recommends renewing the agreement until June 30, 2012
and maintaining the fixed annual amount of $1,219,480.
Background
The Big Blue Bus transit pass program with SMC called "Any Line, Any Time," was
implemented on July 1, 2008 following aone-year demonstration limited to three small
services. The goal of the unlimited ride program combined with significant service
improvements was to reduce peak period vehicle trips to Santa Monica. Under this
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program any SMC student, faculty or staff member may board any Big Blue Bus and
show the bus operator their SMC photo identification card with a semester sticker. At
the same time that Any Line, Any Time was implemented, Big Blue Bus inaugurated
Rapid 7 service on Pico Boulevard and Line 11, the SMC to UCLA direct link, to
accommodate an anticipated large increase in passenger loads. The 2010 Line-by-Line
Analysis indicated that SMC ridership on the Big Blue Bus system had increased by 48
percent to 2,883,323 annual passenger boardings.
Discussion
The fixed annual amount for the SMC Any Line, Any Time program was established in
2008 by multiplying two factors. The first factor was an average rate per boarding of
$0.625, which was based on the estimate that half of all SMC riders would be eligible for
the under 21 years of age youth fare of $0.50, and that the other half would fall into the
regular fare category of $0.75 per boarding. The second factor was the 1,951,168
passengers counted by surveyors boarding and alighting at bus stops adjacent to SMC
in the spring 2007 Line-by-Line Analysis before the program went into effect. These two
factors total an annual fare amount of $1,219,480.
Since 2009, City staff has been working with SMC to implement magnetic stripe card
technology that is similar to what is used for the UCLA BruinGO! program. With this
upgrade, the City would be able to bill SMC for the actual number of passenger
boardings by program participants rather than an amount based on survey data. SMC
and the City agree that this will be the final extension of the current fixed annual amount
and after June 30, 2012, the annual amount for any future agreement extension will be
based on the number of passenger boardings as tabulated by the electronic farebox and
the Council approved fare structure that is in effect during the billing period.
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Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
Funds in the amount of $1,219,480 are included in the FY 2011-12 adopted budget at
revenue account 41642.402000.
Prepared by: Paul Casey, Senior Transit Programs Analyst
Approved:
ti ed illiam ~/
cting Director of Transit Services
Forwarded to Council:
-~-~~~
Rod Gould
City Manager
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Reference Contract
No. 9456 (CCS)