In an era of tight budgets and increasing gas prices, it is important to keep public transportation on the agenda. The City of Santa Monica City Council recently approved several changes to their Big Blue Bus public transportation system that decision-makers hope will have a positive impact on riders throughout the West Los Angeles area. Because the bus system covers a large portion of the Westside region, residents of Santa Monica and many sections of L.A., including Brentwood, Westwood, Mid-Wilshire, Palms and Century City will be affected by the changes.
One of the most important improvements is the linkage of the Pico corridor line, Rapid 7, to the Wilshire/Western Metro Station. This will allow commuters to combine Big Blue Bus trips with the Purple Line subway routes, allowing resident to connect with the Mid-Wilshire area and Downtown. Other key changes include decreasing frequencies of some less-popular routes, in order to improve efficiency and speed. The network will also eliminate some rarely used bus stops so they can re-allocate those resources to the lines that are undergoing expansions. In addition the city will also add larger buses which will increase capacity of the system. The approved alterations will be implemented into the schedules on August 28, 2011.
Stephanie Negriff, the director of transit services for the Big Blue Bus, released the following statement: “These changes will allow us to provide the most service to the most people while maintaining a balanced budget this year. We’re pleased that as a result of effective research and outreach, we’ll be a better bus service without any negative impacts to this year’s operating budget or fares.”
It is important for all transportation systems in the greater L.A area to collaborate in hopes of forming a comprehensive transit network that will serve as a viable alternative to vehicle transportation. The region received some good news this week when Governor Jerry Brown released the California state budget. Included in the fund allocations is $1 Billion in Prop 1B sales, from which the LA County Metro system is hoping to receive $400 million to help fund transportation projects. According to a Metro press release, the funds will go to projects already in progress. However, it is important for transportation planners to continue to improve the overall transportation network in the Greater L.A. area with new and innovative approaches to transit solutions in the near future.
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