City Council Meeting: February 24, 2009

Agenda Item: 9-A

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 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 pick up. 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, 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 e-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 e-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 Convention 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 27^th, 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

Approved:	Forwarded to Council:
Stephanie Negriff Director of Transit Services	P. Lamont Ewell City Manager

Attachment: Beach Ride Service Changes Spring 2009