VTA, city work on new style of service
Gilroy – The handful of regional buses now lumbering along Gilroy’s main traffic arteries could soon be replaced by smaller, “neighborhood-friendly” shuttles that pick residents up closer to home and drop them off closer to businesses, medical centers and other destinations.
The Valley Transportation Authority and Gilroy City Council will hold a study session Monday to review the process of switching to community busing. The style of service relies on smaller buses that can penetrate deeper into residential neighborhoods.
“It will allow us to go into areas not conducive for big buses,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “Overall, it’s much nicer for our area than having these big buses running around. This community busing will provide a better way our people to reach the major employment and shopping centers.”
The city currently has four regional bus routes that begin at the downtown Caltrain station and travel along main roads such as Monterey, First and 10th streets. The routes connect residents to eastern destinations such as Saint Louise Regional Hospital and the Pacheco Pass shopping centers, as well as western destinations such as City Hall and the First Street shopping corridor.
The regional buses typically stop along wider public roads, in part because private owners of shopping centers, hospitals and other destinations are reluctant to allow stops in their parking lots.
“Instead of dropping people off on the street, can we get buses closer to the front door of Target or Costco?” City Transportation Engineer Don Dey asked. “The answer is it looks like it’s a lot more doable now because one of the obstacles is that large buses tear up private property. We go to smaller buses and there’s less of a maintenance problem.”
The Caltrain station off Monterey Street would remain Gilroy’s transportation hub under the community busing system, serving as a transfer point between east-west shuttles and regional buses that run up to San Jose and Sunnyvale.
The VTA plans to hold a series of meetings in December and January to gather public opinion on the best routes for the shuttles. Officials hope to start up the new service by July.
If successful, Gilroy would become the second city in Santa Clara County to switch to community busing.
A similar program in Los Gatos has resulted in major increases in ridership, according to Los Gatos Community Development Director Randy Tsuda.
“The average ridership is 20,000 to 24,000 per month,” Tsuda said. “Given our historic downtown with our smaller streets, the fact that they’re using the smaller buses, rather than the larger regional buses, is a real advantage. And the fact that we’ve been able to brand the buses as a Los Gatos community bus, with images of the town, reinforces the community feel.”
Tsuda could not provide precise ridership figures for the period before community busing started in July 2005. But he said the change has been noticeable.
“When those large buses circulated through downtown, they were empty,” Tsuda said. “Now, depending on the time of day, they’re quite full.”
