Carmageddon: Metro conducts public input on Reimagine Metro Phase 2 ahead of March board meeting

2024 is the year of big changes at Santa Cruz Metro. 

Its operations are currently running a few blocks north from its longtime hub, where crews are beginning to build the Pacific Station North transit center and affordable housing development. The agency’s major restructuring effort — dubbed Reimagine Metro — launched in late December. That mostly involved adjusting bus routes, including a new Route 3 that connects the UC Santa Cruz campus to Live Oak, buses every 10 to 20 minutes at Cabrillo College on Routes 1 and 2 that span from Watsonville to Live Oak, and more frequent service between Santa Cruz and Watsonville.

Now, Metro is gearing up to implement Phase 2 in September, in time for the 2024-25 academic year. That phase entails the most dramatic change, and signifies a “transformational, monumental increase in service,” said John Urgo, Metro’s director of planning and development.

Phase 2 involves rolling out Metro’s Wave Service, the agency’s name for a program that will run buses every 15 minutes, all day, on major cross-county corridors serving Watsonville and Mid-County, a service extension from the Eastside through downtown to the UCSC campus to create a direct ride from Cabrillo College or the Capitola Mall all the way to UCSC, and all-day service on a Watsonville-to-Santa Cruz express route.

Last week, Metro held public input sessions for feedback as the agency finalizes the draft plan and prepares to bring it to Metro’s board of directors for approval March 22. About 25 residents attended the Santa Cruz meeting last Wednesday. Most said they appreciate the efforts to improve the bus system, but raised a handful of concerns and suggestions to include in the final Phase 2 plan.

Maia Zohara is a daily bus rider who said that safety at bus stops and in vehicles should be prioritized, especially if more people will be riding the bus. She recalls a recent bus trip with mentally ill passengers, and thinks that drivers and Metro staff should have a specific approach to dealing with those situations. She added that the bus stops should have better safety measures, too.

“As a woman, I ask where are the lights? It can be scary at 11 p.m. and that could be eradicated with simple lights,” she said, adding that she would like to see improved weather shelter for rainy days as well.

Zohara also said she would like to see holiday service, which Urgo said Metro will take into consideration as it finalizes its draft plan.

Elizabeth Stewart, who is visually impaired, said that navigating the Phase 1 changes to routes and wait times alone will be difficult, as she might not know the extent of the adjustments. With more dramatic changes on the way, she requested that the agency communicate better with the disabled, older residents and members of the low-income community to inform them about the coming changes.

Urgo said Metro’s rollout of Phase 1 was “probably not the best” in terms of communication, but it is working to improve that leading up to September. The agency will distribute information to the blind and disabled community at the Metro Advisory Committee meetings, and the Metro amenities will see improvements, too, with boarding islands — a loading area right next to the travel lane — and tactile indicators — raised textures on the ground — to allow for easier navigation and a smaller distance between the stop and the bus. He added that Metro is also working on adding Braille and raised numberings to signage for visually impaired riders.

Cabrillo College student Aiden Tinkey said he commutes from Westside Santa Cruz to campus most days and is concerned about Metro’s plan to combine the Westside 18 and 19 routes and the cross-county 1 and 2 routes. He said that while that would theoretically improve his travel time, it could make his route much more vulnerable to delays, because the 18 and 19 wait times can be very unpredictable.

“I feel like the longer bus routes would add more stress to the drivers and increase the likelihood of delays,” he said. “If a branch goes down by UCSC, that shouldn’t affect my commute to Cabrillo.”

Tinkey also added that fare-free rides are “a great idea,” and hopes that the agency can continue offering them into the future. Metro began offering fare-free rides this month, and will continue to do so throughout Reimagine Metro’s three-year pilot project. The agency hopes to nail down additional funding to continue fare-free rides after the pilot period ends.

Urgo said that over the next month, Metro will take the public input from the meetings and its online survey to decide what to add or change in the Phase 2 plan before bringing it to the Metro board for approval March 22. He added that it is likely that the board will approve Phase 2 on that day, barring any significant public pushback — meaning that the local bus system will take a huge step toward the vision that has been in the works for over a year.

Latest news

Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:

The Highway 1 widening project will shut down the straight onramp to northbound Highway 1 from Westbound 41st Avenue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday.

The Pure Water Soquel water purification project continues to move forward, and its current work will affect parts of Laurel Street in Santa Cruz. The installation of an architectural cover for the piping along the Laurel Street bridge will continue this week between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., shutting down one lane of westbound Laurel Street.

The Pure Water Soquel project crews are also conducting pipeline pressure testing and temporary paving on from Soquel Drive to Chanticleer Avenue and on Cabrillo College Drive between 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday. Lane closures could cause mild to moderate traffic delays.

The PV Water College Lake Project will shut down one eastbound lane on Highway 129 between Sakata Lane and Rodriguez Street in South County. Crews are installing a 6-mile water supply pipeline along the road.

Traffic signal, drainage and tree work will cause one-lane traffic control on various sections of Highway 9 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. In these stretches, there will be one lane open with a traffic light controlling the flow of traffic in both directions. Those areas are the sections between Camp Sycamore Road and the Paradise Park exit, Henry Cowell Redwoods Vista Point and Glengarry Road, and California Drive/Middle Road and Alba Road.

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