Service to Scotts Valley needs some work. We need more and faster service to Scotts Valley and back. We propose to have 4 buses an hour serving Scotts Valley Drive in the morning peak.. (31, 32 and 35A twice an hour. We also propose to eliminate the Route 30 and replace it with more direct service using the Route 31 and 32 to get commuters home from Scotts Valley Drive in a more timely fashion.
Local night service in Scotts Valley also needs some work. We propose to expand service until 10:00pm at night. The plan is as follows:
Route 31 Graham Hill Road - Scotts Valley Drive
This route currently runs only in the morning.
A new Route 32 would be created. Departing at :15 after the hour; its routing would be exactly the reverse of the Route 31- in short, outbound Highway 17 to Scotts Valley Drive then inbound Mount Hermon to Graham Hill Road.
This route would begin at 6:15am. (The 35A would run until 8:30am). The last run would leave Metro at 9:15pm. Weekend runs would mirror weekday service.
Routes 33 and 34 Lompico South Felton
Along with the North Coast service, the Lompico-South Felton area was the hardest hit in service cutbacks after the earthquake. Ridership was decent at one time but has plummeted to barely noticeable levels. We propose gradually increasing service for this area, so that by the year 2015 we would have essentially hourly service for both the 33 and the 34 from 6:15am through 6:15pm, with a last chance run at 10:00pm. Once again, we propose the weekend schedule match the weekday.
Although two runs per hour may be adequate during non-peak time of the day, we believe that soon more service will be needed on this corridor, especially during the peak hours. However, we believe the additional runs should be 35L or "Limited". They would not serve Scotts Valley Drive or SVTC and would be quicker that regular 35s.
We would add two more trips of the Route 36, one at 7:30am and one at 6:15pm. The 7:00pm 36 would be moved up to 6:45pm so service would look like this:
|
Inbound |
Outbound |
| 7:00am | 5:45pm |
| 7:30am | 6:15pm |
| 8:00am | 6:45pm |
These areas were also hard hit by the service cuts that came as a result of the earthquake. We used to have pretty regular departures and steady ridership. Ridership is still pretty steady but the departures are decidedly irregular.
Our proposal is to rectify that situation. Early in the 15 year plan we would add 3 mid-day runs of the Route 42 to give more service to both areas. By 2013 we believe ridership will dictate that those three runs be individual 40s and 41s serving Davenport and Bonny Doon respectively. We also believe it is time that Metro once again serve Ano Nuevo. This run was very popular with our customers and should be re-instated.
Service would look like this:
Regrettably, Capitola is an example of what happens when you have to cut service and try to cover an area with fewer routes. Because the service lacks cohesiveness we have lost ridership in this area. We propose to serve Capitola Village every 15 minutes.
We believe the frequency of service will help restore ridership. Here is the plan:
Eliminate in favor of more sensible routing.
Currently running weekdays only, we think this route should be extended to weekends as well.
This route is too long. Our proposal divides the current Route 54 into two distinct routes. This one serves Cabrillo, Rio Del Mar flats and gives Aptos Village direct service to Capitola Mall.
Route 55 Aptos / La Selva
This route would serve the new Capitola library, Capitola City Hall and Cabrillo. It would then serve the La Selva Beach area. It would depart Capitola Mall on the hour running from 7:00am to 8:00pm seven days a week.
This has been a very effective weekend route. So much so that we believe it should run weekdays as well. We would move its departure to :15 after the hour to facilitate our idea to serve the Village every fifteen minutes. This route also drops out a couple of runs during the weekends. It needs to be consistent so we add those two runs in.
There needs to be at least twice an hour service from the Dominican/Villa San Carlos area to the Capitola Mall seven days a week. This new route does that and serves the Santa Cruz Gardens area and Soquel Avenue (the frontage road) in its entirety.
To serve the Skills Center, Dominican Hospital and Santa Cruz Gardens is too much for one route to do. Again, we want to be more direct. Our proposal is to serve upper 17th Avenue outbound from Capitola Mall and Clares St. inbound.
This route commonly gets stuck in traffic coming down 41st Avenue. We propose to have it stay on Soquel down to Robertson St. Then it can serve the new library as it comes in on Clares St. from Wharf Road.
Metro used to have 4 runs per hour serving the lower Live Oak area. With the increase in UC students in this area and the standing loads we have on some runs, we think it is time to add back the run, albeit with different routing.
This route tries to cover too much territory for its running time. We propose to reroute it to go straight on Water St. instead going from Water to Gault and back up to Soquel.
When looking at Owl Service countywide, we knew that Live Oak would need such service. This route seemed to cover the area the best.
This route requires no changes.
This new route would serve Broadway, pick-up the Gault loop (now done by the Route 65) and give twice an hour service to busy 17th Ave. It would also serve Portola Drive.