I spent 3 weeks in December of 2005, in Salem, Oregon. I had to learn how to ride “The Cherriots.” Hey, a bus is a bus, right? If your doing the math, 7 years ago, and Cherriots had killed the transfer already. CityBus needs to do the same. In Salem, you either pay for a single ride, or buy a day pass, which you can buy from the cash box on the bus. Same is true for Eugene, Oregon. Good-Bye transfers! That could really help CityBus.

I will also mention Salem, Oregon has no Weekend service. To my knowledge, they never operated on Sundays. Rather than slash Weekday routes, they pulled the plug on Saturdays.

Santa Rosa CityBus needs better “Thinkers” than they have now. Chances are Santa Rosa is too poor to pay for CityBus to be totally re-done. That is what is needed, an all-new configuration, rather than the on-going band-aid approach.

I don’t use public transit anymore, so I can’t feel your pain. I am sad for the people who use CityBus. Things have gone from bad to worse.

I don’t think prices are out of line. Prices in the 2 cities in Oregon previously mentioned are pretty much the same as what CityBus will charge in February of 2013.

Also, the day passes are typically double the price of single ride fares.

Jim

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You people are clueless. Get on the bus before you form your opinions about the people riding the bus. I can afford the fee and the coffee. A lot of people, people unlike me who have NO CHOICE IN THEIR TRANSPORTATION can barely afford the fee and they certainly can’t afford a $4 cup of coffee (though mine is just plain and costs $2).

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If we ever did a government audit the tax payers would freak.

Ron Paul couldn’t even get the Federal Reserve to accept an audit to inventory OUR GOLD!

WE are the ones being taken for a ride, even if we never get on the bus.

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Makes me really, really mad. I have a lot a bus friends. The lady who is always reading and we can discuss books who works downtown. The young man featured in the photo who is bright but has no alternative to get to work might have a TWO HOUR commute to his work and maybe even more if there are 3 wheelchairs waiting for rides. The hispanic mother with 2 little children every morning taking them to daycare then gets back on the bus and I don’t know where she goes after that. The hispanic woman who is a neighbor and works as maid but has no car and can’t afford one. She walks that mile with me to the bus stop in the morning. Ken, the blind man who is in a wheelchair (extremely independent and dependent entirely on the bus system for his independence)rides regularly on my bus to go get spaghetti at the Yulupa shopping center once per week. Remember Ken, who was hit by a car and nearly killed a few years ago? Because of this he is much more disabled than he was, but he is always happy and smiling and talking to people on the bus and he’s a joy. THESE ARE SOME OF THE FACES ON MY BUS. They are people with needs and is the at the mercy of the words “productivity” and “below average” because they happen to live in an outlying area. By the way, I counted. There were 20 people on the bus this morning. I know the previous run has more. The school children from Slater and Montgomery fill the bus in the middle of the afternoon and the 4:30 and 5:00 are full of commuters and the bus is crowded so some have to stand. I call my route a productive route but the managers making this decision says it isn’t.

Again, Santa Rosa is a city, it is not a little town anymore. We need GOOD TRANSIT. If money has gone to SMART transit needs it back. Afterall, people who will use SMART for commuting will need the city bus TO GET TO THE TRAIN STATION. With the building of SMART the improvement of transit should happen at the same time. And I am one of the people who believe SMART is a good thing.

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I took my bike in the AM to a ‘job’ that I had for some years. 60 Bus to Safeway Mendo, then ride the bike the mile to near Coddingtown. My tools and materials were stored on site. I could ride my bike back home( like 6 miles, and stop at a son’s, or the farm stand on River Road, or ride over to Mendo, do some shopping and visiting and load my urban warrior mtn bike back on the bus.

I rarely took the City bus, as didn’t need it on a daily basis, heck, I could have driven my car or truck !

SMART has stolen monies that could have been used for the bus services. Tens of MILLIONS. Well known fact to us observant ones.

Besides, I can make a “bum’s” life better waiting at a stop, as those ‘bums’ are usually injured souls. Or the down and out. Or just saying Hi to the regulars that go to work and conversing with them and the driver.

My sons lived in Kenwood, and it was soooo easy for me to take the 60, then the 20 to Sonoma. Almost as fast as driving. Granted, the stops were very close ( within 50-100 yards).

Or days downtown– Take the car and drive to 6 spots, or take my bus, bike and backpack to go shopping, library, friends houses, multi-traveling if you will- and come home happy.

The 62 Sonoma County bus rocks.

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And for the rest of you who think it’s a matter of cost only, you are wrong. I am not complaining about the cost. I don’t even pay for my bus pass, my employer does because it saves on paying for a garage parking space, keeps traffic down so clients can find parking. Lots of employers pay for their employees bus passes. If I had to pay it myself I would gladly pay the fee even if they increased it higher than they plan. But most who ride the bus are poor, students are poor, the elderly are poor, and the increased fee is a hardship.

Truly, if you live reasonably close to a bus stop and your work is close to a bus stop, TRY RIDING THE BUS especially if you work downtown or in the county center (the county will buy you a city bus pass and you can get on the county buses free if you are a county worker). It beats hunting for a parking space downtown and risking a parking citation or in the county administration center and leaves spaces for those doing business or shopping.

The added benefit has been exercise since my home isn’t near a bus stop. I have to walk 2 additional miles a day and manage to put 10,000 to 15,000 steps on my pedometer. I can read on the bus and don’t have the stress of maniac drivers also on their way to work. And the bus drivers are a nice and intelligent bunch.

Bus service ADDS to other forms of non car travel. It is a good thing. For those of you who don’t ride the bus, you should try it.

Bus services should be increased not cut.

Vinyl Rules- you are right. Santa Rosa is definitely not the small town I moved to in 1969. If is now a city and should have appropriate mass transit.

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However; as my dad always asked me, “If you want _____, what are you willing to give up?” There are soooo many things that need or want funds to make their department work. Schools (Arts, music, sciences, sports), parks, libraries, transit…….the list goes on and on. Fact of the matter is there is a finite amount of funds available, so what are you willing to give up? Higher taxes? Higher fare? Having to use City and County buses instead of just City? If not driving your car to work only costs $600 per year, and a car averages $9000 per year, even doubling your fare cost to $1200 still is a huge savings, right? So I ask yet again, what are you willing to give up?

I still take the bus now and again. No parking meter to feed, can get home safely if out for a night on the town, etc. If I had to pay $5 a bus ride as opposed to a $20 cab fare in the evenings to go out with friends, I would do it in a flash, and I think many others would too. I am willing to give up a few more dollars out of my pocket to get the service level I desire. So what are you willing to give up?

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I’d be more likely to buy the idea that most riders can’t afford a higher fare if I didn’t see so many standing at a bus stop while holding a cup of purchased coffee in one hand and either a cigarette or smart phone in the other.

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Possibly because of habit: people who are not use to using mass transit find it difficult to change to using it. Many people are not aware of the full benefits of using mass transit. Benefits include less: pollution, energy use, traffic, need for parking, pavement; it’s safer and saves money.

The typical car cost [ carrying/capital and operating ] $9,000 per year. City Bus cost $600 per year and possibly less. Car operating cost [ fuel, insurance, maintenance and repair ] alone is more than the cost of using the bus. Even if you own a car, you would save money by using the bus.

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I’m well aware that diminished service and higher fares will cause some people to stop using the bus. Still, bus services has to be paid for. Is expecting fares to cover 20% of operating cost too much? Apparently so.

Mass transit doesn’t live up to its name except in cities with a population density far in excess of Santa Rosa’s. As a result, for much of the day our buses cruise around mostly empty, even at very low fares. Taxpayers see this and don’t like it.

Even if bus service was free many people would prefer the convenience (and safety) of their car. That reality isn’t going to change, however much you may want it to.

If bus riders want better service, then bus riders had better step up and offer to pay for better service. I’m not holding my breath.

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People like me who can drive but choose not to will stop riding the bus. This will add to their $500,000 deficit. I’ve already heard several on my bus alone talk about driving again. Sometimes I use the bus during the weekend doing errands. Because my bus runs every hour on the weekend it takes me ALL DAY to do a few errands, visit my mom, and maybe take in a movie. I transfer multiple times on buses that only run every hour or even every two hours. I don’t want them to cut week day services to every hour. People who take the bus to work or to school everyday and have to transfer to another bus OR TWO, will find themselves taking 2 hours or more getting from one end of the city to another with all the cuts. If you work at Sutter, for instance, they are cutting the Sunday run entirely so those riders won’t be able to get to work if they don’t drive. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Somehow the city has to plug this hole. I still think they need to lay off those managers making this decisions. THEY CERTAINLY DON’T FEEL OUR PAIN.

Furthermore, lots of people work odd hours and the buses stop running at 7:30. Golden Gate Transit and Sonoma County Transit run buses later. There’s no free parking downtown so you have no way to get home except to take a taxi. These riders a likely to start commuting in their cars again clogging 101 further.

Bus service is an asset to any community and should be expanded not cut. Bus service needs to be reliable, convenient, on time, AND ACCESSIBLE or there will be NO RIDERS.

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This is the future of public transportation and smart. There is never enough money to operate a unionized, inefficient system. They are all revenue hogs that always consume much more than they deliver.

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If anything, raising fares and reducing service will cause some people to abandon the bus in favor of a car. There are people for whom a car is just too expensive, but if service deteriorates enough then they’ll scrap together enough money for a jalopy. Or they’ll use their existing car more than they would otherwise.

Still, I don’t think expecting people to pay 20% of the operating cost of a bus ride is asking too much. If mass transit is such a great idea, why are so few people willing to pay for it?

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