Buses Delve into Neighborhoods

Gilroy
 – Shuttle bus lines will wind deeper into east and west Gilroy
neighborhoods under plans to replace the city’s lumbering regional
buses.
Gilroy – Shuttle bus lines will wind deeper into east and west Gilroy neighborhoods under plans to replace the city’s lumbering regional buses.

Based on requests last week from city residents, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority plans to eliminate a portion of Line 19 that runs along Santa Teresa Boulevard and instead steer the bus through north central Gilroy, past numerous housing developments, schools and Las Animas Veterans Memorial Park.

To the east, the Line 17 bus that connects residents to hospitals and human service agencies in east Gilroy will change its traditional last leg along Leavesley Road and Monterey Street. Instead of turning down Leavesley Road, the shuttle bus will travel south on Murray Avenue past several residential neighborhoods and a middle school, before emerging on Monterey Street downtown.

Residents proposed the new routes in the first of two public forums held last week at City Hall.

“Between the meetings, our service people looked at both suggestions and they appear to work,” said VTA spokesman Erik Winston, who said the agency has incorporated both ideas into its plans for community busing. The agency hopes to switch to the new style of service by July.

Traditionally, commuters, shoppers and others who rely on public transportation had to make their way to First Street, Leavesley Road and other traffic arteries to catch a bus. Under the community busing program, the VTA hopes to provide routes tailored to the community.

About 20 people showed up at the meeting last week to request service in their neighborhoods, resulting in the new routes through east and west Gilroy neighborhoods. The shuttle bus system will also connect residents with shopping centers in east Gilroy and Gavilan College in southwest Gilroy.

The Monterey Street train station will remain the city’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.

Transfers under the shuttle system should be relatively painless, according to City Transportation Engineer Don Dey.

“The idea is for all of the buses to converge at the same time (at the Caltrain station),” he said, “so people don’t’ have to sit there for 20 minutes waiting for a bus to show up.”

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